The Magical Bean: Coffee

Figure 1. The structure of caffeine and benzoic acid with their molecular weights and formulas.

Can someone tell me why they drink coffee? Well, most people think of it as a powerful drink that gives them energy whenever they need it. I am here to tell you that coffee works a lot differently than most of us think. It does something completely different than what you might expect to your body. And coffee is not the same for everyone, to some living things it’s even poisonous. Even its name is deceiving because coffee is not even a bean at all. I am not here to dissuade you from drinking coffee, but rather inform you about how coffee affects us and how our bodies deal with it. So next time when you chug down a cup you should know what you’re doing to your body.

“Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.” Coffee has an affect on many people’s daily lives as well as many aspects of society. First we will go over the history of coffee and how it was discovered, then look at just how much work goes into the production of coffee, after that we will see how much coffee is actually consumed and how it affects everyday culture, we will discover how to make the perfect cup of coffee, and finally we will look at how drinking coffee can benefit your health. The positive effects create a more vivid picture of health for a society in comparison to the occasional negative effect that has been found.

Caffeine is an odorless, slightly bitter solid. It is a stimulant. Caffeine dissolves in water and alcohol, and has crystals that look like needles. When taken in small

1. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary caffeine is defined as a bitter alkaloid C8H10N4O2 (not that any of you care) found especially in coffee, tea, cacao, and kola nuts and used medicinally as a stimulant and diuretic

Caffeine plays an enormous role in society today, from coffee to cokes to candy bars. Companies have made billions off the desire for that extra kick. Caffeine is the most widely consumed behaviorally active substance in the world making it one of the world’s most popular drugs. It’s known for the ability to stimulate the brain and central nervous system. The Chemical structure of caffeine is C8H10N4O2. Before the popular use of caffeine one can assume that people were sleepier, and less alert.

The active chemical in coffee is caffeine, and too people coffee is used to increase the heart rate or give people an increase in energy. The effect coffee has on people varies between people, the affect one cup of coffee may have on one person wouldn’t be enough to have an effect on another person.

What is caffeine? Caffeine is a compound present in over sixty plants, including coffee beans, tea leaves, cacao pods and kola nuts. Around, 90% of people use caffeine in their food or drinks. Most American’s drink it in the form of coffee. Some may drink it in the form of carbonated soft drinks, tea, or energy drinks. Most caffeine consumption is done by drinking coffee which is made with ground up coffee beans. How much coffee do we drink? According, to the Huffington Post. “Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day, equivalent to 146 billion cups of coffee per year, making the United States the leading consumer of coffee in the world.” That is only coffee. What about other products? Well according

The world’s primary sources of caffeine are coffee and tea, and in North America alone, coffee represents about 3/4 of where dietary caffeine comes from. Other forms of caffeine, which is found in 60% of plants, are cocoa products, cola beverages, and energy drinks. Available to both children and adults, 80% of the world’s population consumes caffeine on a daily basis as a legal stimulant. Caffeine was first documented to have been consumed in China around 350CE, although some evidence states that the first consumption of tea was to be around 300BCE, and coffee cultivation is reported to have started around 600CE in Ethiopia (Korsmeyer and Kranzler).

C8H10N4O2, otherwise known as Caffeine, comes from the family of heterocyclic amine compounds known as alkaloids. Alkaloids come from the end production of nitrogen metabolism in plants like cacao,

Ninety percent of people use caffeine in some form in the world. Most of us consume it every day but how much do we really know about caffeine. Caffeine is an alkaloid compound in which pure form is odorless and bitter in taste. It comes front a plant product most commonly found in coffee beans, cocoa, tea, and chocolate. Caffeine is also found in some prescription and nonprescription drugs. It is considered the most commonly used psychoactive drug used in the world. After you ingest caffeine it is completely absorbed in your body within thirty to forty five minutes. It’s naturally found in certain leaves, beans, and fruits of over sixty plants worldwide. Just to give you an idea of just how much caffeine you may be consuming on a daily basis. A single

Caffeine in its purest form is a white color with a prismatic crystal form (1) and has a density of 1.23 g/cm³ (2). It is found in the leaves and beans of the coffee plant, in tea, yerba mate, and guarana berries, and in small quantities in cocoa, the kola nut and the Yaupon Holly. Overall, caffeine is found in the beans, leaves, and fruit of over 60 plants, where it acts as a natural pesticide that paralyzes and kills certain insects feeding upon them. Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant, having the effect of temporarily warding off drowsiness and restoring alertness. Caffeine is slighty soluble (3). And has a boiling point of 178°C (4) and a melting point of 238°C (5). Its molecular formula is C8H10 N4O2 and has an average mass of 194.190598 Da. Da stands for the Daltons (6).

1,3,7 trimethylxanthine, better known as caffeine is defined as a drug or a stimulant compound found in coffee, tea and cocoa naturally (Dash, 2008). Caffeine is an alkaloid, which is a substance that is produced as end products of nitrogen metabolism in some plants. Caffeine can also be found added to soft drinks and medicine. The consumption of caffeine has several effects on the human body. One of the most important effects is the inhibition of phosphodiesterase. It has been reported that caffeine can be considered an antimicrobial mediator most effective on E. coli (Dash, 2008). Some species of bacteria have been known to degrade caffeine and use it as a source of nutrients.

Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages around the world as a source of caffeine. The coffee market is worth over $100 billion worldwide, with 500 billion cups of coffee consumed each year. The coffee industry provides the livelihood of over 25 million people globally. Finland drinks the most amount of coffee per capita in the world.1 Coffee beans have a high content of caffeine, 1, 3, 7-trimethylxanthine and is the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive drug2. It is the caffeine that stimulates the Central Nervous System (CNS) to mainly relive drowsiness as well as to increase one’s energy level. This effect may begin as quickly as 15 minutes once it has been ingested and can last for up to six hours3. Raw Caffeine crystals

Have you ever questioned the existence of coffee or even wondered what it contains? Coffee is a drink that most people of today are familiar with and it is not just your average drink. Its popularity these days is associated with the different coffee shops that we can see today --- Starbucks, Coffee Bean or Seattle's Best. Behind those cups, don't you marvel on what your body is taking? Coffee used to have a