[Comparison of caffeine content in imported and produced products in Syria]

A new method was developed for accurate , sensitive and practical one for determination of Caffeine during 6 minutes for each sample .411 sample were collected from imported and local productes in Syrian market during 2009-2010 BC .Caffeine was extracted and determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).Column C8 , flow of 1 ml / minute dnd UV-VIS with wave length of 272 nm were used . The mobile phase was consisted of methanol / water (40:60 v:v ) and the linearity of standard caffeine was from 5-400 µg/ml. Result analysis of caffeine samples revealed that soft drink imported had higher amount of caffeine when compared with soft drink produced locally in Syria . In addition , it was noticed that diet had higher amount of caffeine comparing it with normal soft drink and energy drink samples were not rejected by Syrian standard except sample B6 , whereas all liquid Arabic coffee samples were rejected moreover , it was noticed that higher amount of caffeine in free black tea when compared with backed black tea , whereas green tea samples were low in caffeine content and the percentage of rejected samples were 71.43% according to Syrian standard .The chocolate of bitterness , sweet and white samples were very low in caffeine content , whereas black coffee samples were high in caffeine when compared with blond coffee and the Robsta coffee had double amount of Arabica coffee type . The effects of pretreatment on caffeine content revealed that there was an increase level during rusting time ro reach the highest of 16 minutes with temperature of 227 and ther was also an increase in caffeine content with an increasing temperature and period of extraction which should not exceeded up to 15 minutes . The level of caffeine consumed daily from all sources was studded and the result showed that it was less than 350mg daily and therefore the caffeine consumed daily does not effect that Syrian public health .