The present study focuses on the quantification of caffeine from 11 pharmaceutical and natural products. Pharmaceutical products were
purchased from pharmacy and include 4 types of tablets and 1 suppository type product. Natural products were purchased from specialty
stores and comprise green tea, black tea and different kinds of coffee. Some of the quality parameters like friability and disintegration time
for tablets, melting behavior, deformation temperature and time of deformation for suppositories were determined. The caffeine content
was determined using UV spectrophotometric methods by measuring the absorbance at 272 nm, after separating the caffeine from the
others active ingredients and excipients. The results showed that caffeine content in pharmaceutical products purchased from pharmacies is
in the range recommended by European and Romanian Pharmacopoeia. In the case of natural products, the caffeine content decreases in the
following order: bulk coffee beans freshly ground > ground coffee packed > black tea > green tea > decaffeinated coffee.
Key words: quantification, extraction, UV spectrophotometric methods, tablets, suppositories, green tea, black tea, coffee
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