Varietal Comparison

This study is aimed at determining the Caffeine content in two varieties of kolanuts,cola acuminata (red kola)and cola nitida(white kola). The Samples were obtained from New Benin market,Edo state. The extraction of Caffeine was done using solvent extraction method and infra-red spectroscopy was used to detect the functional groups present in the Caffeine isolated. The percentage yield for the cola nitida was 0.04% while that of cola acuminata was 0.06%. the I.R band observed at 1646.24cm-1 (C=C) stretch of Alkene, 1700.93cm-1 (C=O) stretch of amide and 3437.36cm-1 (N-H) stretch of amine among others for the cola nitida (white kolanuts) and 1647.25cm-1 (C=C) stretch of
alkenes,1700.54(C=0) stretch of amide and 3442.11cm-1 (N-H) stretch of amine among others for the Cola Acuminata (red kolanuts). The values of these bands suggest the presence of amine groups which confirms the presence of alkaloids (Caffeine). From this research, the caffeine content for the Samples was determined and found that the red kolanuts (cola acuminata) contains more caffeine compared to the white kolanuts (cola nitida).