Tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the most popular beverages worldwide, because of its variety of flavour and, among other things, its gentle stimulant effect, which is due to the caffeine content of the product. People who do not want this stimulant effect, or who respond very sensitively to caffeine, do not have to give up tea, but can opt for decaffeinated tea. There are a number of technical methods available today for the removal of caffeine from tea Ð the usual decaffeination methods work with ethyl acetate, methylene chloride, or supercritical fluid extraction (CO2 method).
Reinhold Zenger and Simon Gerhard start by briefly considering the chemical and historical aspects of caffeine, explaining their physiological effects on human beings, and then go on to discus the natural caffeine content of tea (Camellia sinensis) and caffeine content in the decaffeinated product. The main part of their article then presents the usual industrial methods for decaffeination of tea, and finally they briefly present and comment on some of the research into decaffeination, explaining how consumers can influence the caffeine content of their tea to suit their own preferences.
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