Caffeine is a chemical stimulant found in nature, used for many purposes but mainly to motivate the brain by acting on the nervous system and spinal cord to make you alert and awake. Most of the natural caffeine source is from coffee beans, tea leaves, Kola nuts (utilized to create the flavor in soft drink colas), and cacao pods (the main ingredient in making chocolate products).
Caffeine pill is one of the caffeine products, which is not completely the same as the original caffeine. People usually take caffeine pills for medical purposes. Some wonder whether caffeine pills can dissolve in water or not, so they can drink the liquid of caffeine to consume the caffeine easier.
In this article, the answer and some facts about caffeine in general and caffeine pills in specific will be revealed.
Can caffeine pills dissolve in water? If not, why?
What is caffeine? Once you decide to choose this article to get some information, you might already know what caffeine is and the most basic usage of this chemical.
At present, caffeine is produced in some forms such as powder and pills. However, these two forms are different from each other in terms of some particular aspects related to their usage and characteristics.
Caffeine pills can be made from natural and synthetic caffeine. Coffee beans, tea, and cocoa are just a few examples of natural sources of caffeine that may be used to make caffeine pills. Synthetic caffeine is distinguished from natural caffeine by the content it gets – urea and chloroacetic acid – instead of the extract from the plant products.
Some people drink coffee just because they think the caffeine in the coffee might help them stay awake or physically and psychologically productive. However, spending money on coffee for caffeine is not an economical way and some do not even like the taste or smell of coffee. Therefore, going straight to caffeine pills being available in drug stores seems much better.
But these pills would not be easy for the ones who have problems with taking pills or tablets. “We often see people who can swallow food and liquid just fine but have difficulty with pills. Some people have an aversion to swallowing pills, and others have physical issues that affect their ability to swallow,” says Denise Ambrosi, director of the Speech-Language Pathology Department at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. This might be due to reasons such as Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Motor Neurone disease, and having strokes.
As a result, a need to drink caffeine like a kind of liquid or to dissolve caffeine pills in water is presented. Then is it possible for caffeine pills to be diluted in water?
The answer is Yes. Caffeine itself or caffeine powder can be soluble in water but it can take a longer time for caffeine pills to be soluble in water. Under room temperature, caffeine is readily soluble in water with 20 g/L at room temperature and 660 g/L at boiling temperature.
Nevertheless, caffeine pills when put into water, even if you give them some time to dissolve, the result is always liquid and some sludge leftovers. This is because apart from caffeine, these pills contain companies’ coats or fillers to prevent immediate dissolution. In case you cannot get the 100% liquid from dissolving caffeine pills or get bothered by the sludges, try hot water or simply move to powder form.
Another way to get the pills to dissolve easier is lower the pH of the liquid by using lemonade or the extract from the lemon. This might not be what you expect with water but it is a good way to completely dissoluble the caffeine pills.
Is it possible to add caffeine to water?
Yes, it is. However, the solubility depends on what form of caffeine you add to water. Caffeine powder is a better choice than caffeine pills when comparing the solubility in water. Once adding caffeine to water, you must be aware of the purpose of using and the amount of caffeine you will take because it can lead to some bad experiences of caffeine overdose.
Why can’t caffeine be soluble in water?
As mentioned, caffeine can be solute in water but the solubility is not very high. In the 25°C or 77°F water, the caffeine will have solubility at 2%. This index only decreases when putting caffeine in 100°C water or 212°F.
If you want to get the desired solubility of caffeine, chloroform would be an ideal liquid to move to (as the table named Solubility of caffeine in various solvents and temperatures of Quan Vuong in his research “Caffeine in Green Tea: Its Removal and Isolation”. At the same temperature 25°C or 77°F as the room temperature, the caffeine is observed to be easier and faster in dissolving in this liquid.