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It is claimed that energy drinks can offer an increased energy boost related to their ingredient profile of caffeine, taurine, herbal extracts, and vitamins.
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The targeted demographic group is teenagers, young adults, 18 to 34 y old although expansion into nontraditional markets is also occurring. The consumption of energy drinks is rapidly increasing, as demonstrated by their large market growth. It was concluded that Red Bull® had the highest amount of caffeine and Sting® had the lowest. With respect to a 12 oz can and using peak area, it was found that Red Bull® had a caffeine content of 63.91 mg, Full Throttle® 53.25 mg and Sting® 17.75 mg. With respect to a 12 oz can and using peak height, it was found that Red Bull® had a caffeine content of 88.76 mg, Full Throttle® 78.11 mg and Sting® 42.60 mg.
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For quantitative purposes, serial dilution of the caffeine standard gave a R2 value of 0.999 and the retention time of 2.7 ± 0.2 minutes. These were analyzed alongside a caffeine standard stock solution of concentration 0.205 mg/mL by use of a HPLC-UV/Vis Detector at the wavelength of 254 nm, a Peco reversed-phase C18 column, a mobile phase 80:20 (v/v) of water: methanol and a pump flow rate of 1mL/min. Caffeine was extracted from three different brands of energy drinks: Red Bull®, Full Throttle® and Sting®. This study sought to determine the amount of caffeine present in popular energy drinks, using reverse phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).
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