Coffee

Coffee: very widespread alkaloid drug, not only for the drinks it is widely used, but also for the active ingredient that characterizes it, that is caffeine, widely used in herbal, cosmetic and dietetic fields.

Caffeine is contained in many products for the treatment of cellulite and slimming, thanks to its thermogenic properties, which act on the metabolism of fats, and diuretic. However, the best known action remains the exciting one on the central nervous system, an action that stimulates wakefulness and concentration. Caffeine is also used in the pharmaceutical industry; it is frequently found in anti-migraine sufferers.
Coffea arabica it is the best known plant and from which blends for food use are obtained. However, there are many varieties of coffee, with different concentrations of caffeine. In Brazil, through biotechnological selections, embryonic seeds of caffeine-free coffee have developed; this saves the decaffeination process, which is very expensive for the industry. On the other hand, there are some varieties of coffee with a high caffeine content, such as Robust coffee.

Coffea arabica is a small evergreen tree belonging to the Rubiaceae family. Originally from Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, it is currently cultivated in South America, especially in Brazil, which is the main producer of coffee in the world; the most cultivated species are those Santo and San Paolo.
Coffee is harvested as a fruit; in theory, it is a berry, but some authors consider it a drupe (although it does not have a woody endocarp like all the fruits considered as such). The greenish-yellow seeds are collected from the fruit, which are then de-skinned dry (insufflation of hot and cold air that exfoliates the external integuments of the seed) or wet (prior passage in water, which makes them swell, and subsequent insufflation of air to detach the external film); the choice of one method of depelliculation over another depends on the climatic conditions of collection: if these are particularly humid, the dry method will be preferred, vice versa the wet method will be adopted. The seed is then subjected to rapid drying to eliminate residual traces of water, which could alter its quality.

Depending on the processing that the seeds undergo, they acquire different denominations:

naked coffee: depelliculated coffee;
parchment coffee: dried coffee;
raw coffee: coffee that will be decaffeinated or directly roasted.

Raw coffee can undergo different ways of decaffeination, but water is the most used (together with decaffeination with supercritical fluids, especially supercritical carbon dioxide).

Water decaffeination is the least expensive method; consists in the passage of raw coffee in tubs full of water and activated carbon: since caffeine is a soluble molecule it is easily extracted from the seeds; the passages in water are many and numerous, but despite this, a coffee is still obtained which, despite having a low caffeine content, it is not completely devoid of it.

The method with supercritical carbon dioxide at certain conditions of pressure and temperature, on the other hand, allows for the extraction of caffeine in a more selective way, but with higher operating costs.

The decaffeination process has two purposes: a first for the production of decaffeinated coffee, which in any case has its own market value, and a second for isolating the active ingredient caffeine, which is widely used in wellness products.

In some countries ethyl acetate is still used as an extraction solvent, now abandoned due to toxicological problems.

Decaffeinated raw coffee, like non-decaffeinated coffee, must be roasted. The roasting of the seed consists in its cooking at 200-240 ° C, during which it assumes the typical blackish-brown color. At the same time, the coffee acquires the organoleptic and morphological characteristics peculiar to the drug.

During cooking, the sugars contained in the seed caramelize, giving it the typical color; at the same time, a shiny and greasy veil appears on its surface due to the formation of caffeone (a mixture of terpene and pyridine compounds, which irritate the mucous membranes of the stomach and promote digestion, stimulating the production of gastric juice).

The roasting process does not alter the secondary metabolites (such as caffeine) and the terpenic substances, known as kauranic compounds, which characterize coffee and its properties.

After being roasted, the coffee is ground and subjected to various extraction processes, in particular percolation and decoction. Soluble coffee, on the other hand, is obtained by infusing the ground coffee; the infusion or aqueous extract is then lyophilized giving life to a dry extract. The properties of coffee, essentially attributable to the active ingredient caffeine, are:

stimulating the CNS, wakefulness, concentration;
cardiotonic, stimulates the heart rate with a positive chronotropic effect;
mildly irritating to the gastric mucosa: in this case the digestive properties of caffeine must be shared with caffeone;
activity on fat metabolism, due not only to caffeine but also to kauranic compounds;
stimulating the transmission of the nerve impulse at the musculoskeletal level: it increases the speed of signal transmission in the synapses and the reactivity at the muscular level;
diuretic due to the irritating action of caffeine on the renal epithelium.

For these properties, coffee - like all caffeic drugs (guranà, tea, cocoa) - is used in herbal, dietary and cosmetic formulations.
Although caffeine is an alkaloid, it has chemical properties that make it extractable in water, therefore in this case a "liquid-liquid extraction by displacement is not necessary.

 

Other articles on "Coffee production"

1. Liquid-liquid extraction from alkaloid drugs
2. Pharmacognosy
3. Cocoa - Theobroma cacao

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