Proposição e validação de metodologia analítica para determinação de cafeína em matrizes ambientais

Abstract

Population growth coupled with high demand for services and products contribute to the intensification of new compounds development processes. Consequently, a number of substances, hitherto unnoticed, or regarded as inoffensive now be found as critical in the context of environmental concerns. Xenobiotic compounds are emerging that deserve attention because they present potential risks when in contact with the biota, even at trace concentrations. There are few analytical skills available to monitor such pollutants and effectively evaluate their effects on the environment. An alternative is to monitor some of some compounds as contamination indicators. Recent studies indicate that caffeine is effective marker of anthropogenic activities. The determination of this substance, if not instrumental method involves a difficult to access, is given by complex and time-consuming procedures, based on extraction with solvents and purification techniques. Thus, this paper aims to propose and validation of an analytical methodology, thus contributed to the detection and quantification of caffeine. The method used is basically the extraction by organic solvent and detection by UV-VIS spectrophotometry. After the processing and optimization of the conditions the method was considered valid for aqueous matrices.