1. Caffeine and Niacin Levels in Energy Drinks By: Liz Knisley & Kelley Smith

2. Background Information  Caffeine toxicity results when a person takes in 250-500 mg of caffeine  Symptoms: irritability, nervousness, tremors, and insomnia  Caffeine can become lethal when 1000 mg or more is consumed  Symptoms: seizures or aspiration  Detrimental effect on epilepsy control  Pregnant women consuming 6 or more cups a day can result in miscarriage or low fetal birth weight

3. Background Information  Niacin is a lipid-altering drug  Mainly known to decrease cholesterol levels  Main side effect of niacin is flushing of the skin  If 80 mg is consumed at one period of time it increases the risk of muscle damage  Supplements are usually extended release

4. Purpose and Method  Purpose : to determine whether the amount of caffeine and niacin in a specific energy drink was dangerous to the human body and in what amount.  Method : use the HPLC to test different contents of energy drinks and compare them to standards run of both caffeine and niacin

5. What We Did…  Ran standards of caffeine and niacin on HPLC  Ran diluted energy drinks to gain spectra that could be compared to the standards  Monster (16 fl. oz.)  Red Bull (8.4 fl. oz.)  5 Hour Energy (1.93 fl. oz.)  Mt. Dew Kickstart (16 fl. oz.)  Rock Star: energy x2 (16 fl. oz.)

6. HPLC  Caffeine Standards  50 ppm, 40 ppm, 30 ppm, 20 ppm, and 10 ppm  Niacin Standards  50 ppm, 40 ppm, 30 ppm, 20 ppm, and 10 ppm  Energy drinks were all diluted to 1:8

14. Errors  Ran standards originally to compare caffeine to previous ran standards  Instrument was set to 254 nm  Niacin was not actually 250 mg like it said on bottle  Had to reweigh out the niacin for the stock solution

15. Set Backs  Originally wanted to make a 1:2 dilution of each energy drink  Spectra did not come close to the standards  Tried to dilute to 1:4 and still was off the chart  Finally a dilution of 1:8 worked  Originally wanted to use taurine but the lab did not carry it

16. Conclusion  When wanting more for your money Monster and Rockstar (energy x2) are the way to go  Mt. Dew Kickstart comes in second  Red Bull comes in third  5 hour energy is last  You would have to consume 60.452 Monsters or Rockstar at a consecutive times to die from caffeine intake  70.517 Mt. Dew Kickstarts  115.141 Red Bulls  501.002 5 Hour Energys

17. Future Work  Test more energy drinks such as NOS that contain warning labels for levels of caffeine  Run less diluted standards of niacin so that we can compare the results  Run other compounds associated with energy drinks such as taurine

18. Citations Alpert, P. The Health Lowdown on Caffeine. Home Health Care Management Practice. [Online] 2012, 24, 156. http://hhc.sagepub.com/content/24/ 3/156.full.pdf+html (accessed May 09, 2013). Hochholzer, W., Berg, D., Giugliano, R. The Facts Behind Niacin. Ther Adv Cardiovasc Dis. [Online] 2011, 5, 227. http://tak.sagepub.com/content/5/5/227.full.pdf+html (accessed May 09, 2013).