Extracting (almost pure) Caffeine from Caffeine Pills.

DON'T DO THIS IF YOU ARE NOT 100% SURE THAT THE SOLVENT YOUR USING EVAPORATES COMPLETELY LEAVING NO TOXIC RESIDUE!

ALSO, CAFFEINE IS TOXIC IN HIGH DOSES. (SEE COMMENTS FOR DETAILS)

So let's say you want to make caffeinated muffins, caffeinated peanut butter, or even caffeinated Chap Stick. That means you're going to need some caffeine. Sadly, pure caffeine isn't something you can just buy at your corner store but you can, however, but caffeine pills. In this Instructable I'll be using Maximum Strength NoDoz. The bottle states that each pill contains 200 mg. of caffeine so it will be perfect for this process.

Some may ask "Why not just crush up the pills and use as is?”
If you have ever tasted a caffeine pill (or any solid pill for that matter), you’d know why. The taste is unpleasant and it carries through to the flavor of the food.

With this process, it allows us to do away with the parts of the pill that we don’t want to deal with.

Inactive Ingredients:
Benzoic Acid, Corn Starch,FD&C Blue 1,
Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Microcrystalline Cellulose,
Mineral Oil, Polysorbate 20, Povidone, Propylene Glycol,
Simethicone Emulsion, Sorbitan Monolaurate, Stearic Acid,
Sucrose, Titanium Dioxide.

Since we will be using denatured alcohol as our solvent, we have to analyze these substances to see what else will be dissolved. By searching through the MSDS records, I have that list here.

Soluble in Ethanol or Methanol:
Caffeine, Benzoic Acid, FD&C Blue 1, Povidone.

Some of these are soluble in Methanol but since the solvent is > 4% Methanol their concentrations in the solution will be low (their concentrations are already low and shouldn’t be enough to effect taste). This is true except for caffeine which is soluble in alcohol and will be in high concentration (just like we want).

Having that been said, lets start with the parts list.

Step 1 Parts List

Parts:

A clean pane of glass.
This will be your working surface.

Caffeine Pills
I used NoDoz but any should work.

A mortar and pestle.
Used for crushing pills but any crushing mechanism should be fine.

Eye dropper.
You could use a pipette or straw.

A solvent.
Use 100% alcohol because caffeine dissolves in alcohol.

A lamp.
To see

A razer.
For scraping crystals off of the pane of glass. Key Lime not necessary.

Make sure you're in a well ventilated area.

Comments

[fUkyURlifE]

COULD YOU USE REGULAR ALCOHOL AS OPPOSED TO DENATURED ALCOHOL AS YOUR SOLVENT?

[walkingreject]

Actually, pure caffeine is readily available online. For example, United Nuclear sells 100% pure caffeine powder in quantities of 2, 4, and 8 ounces, which is enough to last you a very very long time.

[jmcdermott]

i guess ive tired this step and i can come to a conclusion on what this man means by two layers. this is not working not to mention he is very broad about the details of the experiment

[simonnomis]

It's much easier to just buy cheap caffeine powder in pure form already.

[Roflolommo]

agreed but i think united nuclear has cheaper 
5 bucks for 2 ounces (about 60 grams)
id be nervous having that around though 2 grams is enough to make your caffeine high very unpleasant and around 20 grams is enough to kill a 100 kilogram guy like me.

[clockfort]

The caffeine from united nuclear is not food-grade.

[weaponscollector94]

use Everclear or vodka

[somefilename]

Is it possible to use acetone?

[legionlabs]

A funnier title for this would be "Decaffeinating caffeine pills". For people who enjoy the classic taste of caffeine pills, but dislike the high!

More seriously, small amounts of methyl alcohol are in fact present in most fermented beverages... but if you want to purify the results of this extraction anyway, you could perform a fractional recrystallization in distilled water. Basically, you dissolve the results of the previous step in as little boiling water as possible, then evaporate out a little water, then let it cool. The caffeine will crystallize out of solution before other substances will. It still won't be 100% pure but it will be closer, as the solubility of benzoic acid is greater in water than caffeine so it is less likely to precipitate. As an added bonus it is sort of cool to watch.

If it refuses to crystallize and you are using a glass container, scratch the bottom lightly with a metal implement to provide a nucleation site (this happened to me once)

[megafeltch]

methanol is 100% safe to use for extraction as long as you let it all evaporate!!! just like when water evaporates, there is nothing left.
the only problem is some denatured alcohol has other additives that are toxic. so when doing this make sure that your alcohol is a mix of ethanol and methanol and nothing else. 

[struckbyanarrow]

i have the same ones 100% caffeiene!

[me7977]

You can do the same thing with just regular water, caffeine dissolves in water. Just boil a little water, pour onto the crushed pills and stir it well. Decant the water onto your evaporation surface and let it dry. It probably won't be as pure, but it's a lot cleaner and easier. Also you could do it again to purify it.

[vaxjo]

You should add a disclaimer about the LD50 of caffeine to the Instructable text (from Wikipedia: the LD50 of caffeine is about 150mg per kg of body mass: a potentially lethal dose for me, a 75 kg male, would be around 12 grams, which is exactly how much is in a standard cannister of NoDoz). Crushed and purified this would fill only a small vial. An unknowning person might not realize the potency of the drug and, deciding to give his coffee a big kick, might just dump it all in.

Also, would it be possibly to use ethyl alcohol as the solvent? If you can get it, 191 proof Everclear contains the maximum amount of ethyl alcohol available through the non-toxic distillation process. This might be safer than using potentially toxic denatured alcohol.

That said, I believe I'll now go brew up a cup of coffee. The natural way!

[Shark500]

My particular Denatured alcohol is considered "Denatured" because it contains > 4% alcohol. it also leaves no residue when dried on it's own on the glass. Some denatured alcohols do contain toxic or unwanted substances such as: syrup of ipecac wood naptha mineral naptha denatonium pyridine my denatured alcohol does not induce vomiting or have a bad smell. methanol is non-toxic but it metabolizes into some nasty carcinogens. using 191 proof "95.5%" ethanol would work but that 4.5% water you may be dissolving more than what you want. a note that caffeine IS water soluble and even more so if it's boiling but it almost negates this process. GO COFFEE!

[skylane]

Shark, METHANOL IS TOXIC! It cannot be made non toxic. It can and will cause brain damage and or death. Denatured alcohol is poisonous. "denatured" means that they took the "natural alcohol" and poisoned it so it cannot be consumed. Any carcinogens it may have or create would be the least of one's worrys.... You might consider editing your comment or deleting it, regarding the methanol...

[skylane]

METHANOL IS POISONOUS and can NOT be made non-poisonous. Just the fumes can be deadly and will also cause brain damage. Non reparable. It's absoultly not worth the risk. Ethanol, however... now we're talkin... Evercear comes in 75% and 95%. 95% is not available in all states. Oregon and Nevada have it.. The 75% can be found in BevMo in Calif. I cannot tell you how effective these will be, but DO NOT USE METHANOL Even denatured alcohol IS POISONOUS. And cannot be made non poisonous. That is because, otherwise it would be ethanol and would have to have the federal alcohol taxes added on. that would increase the price about 5X.

[nobody_95]

Good job, but how i can get pure caffeine powder from normal coffee??

[kortez617]

You'll need sodium carbonate and a non-polar solvent, such as methylene chloride. add 1g sodium carbonate to 100ml coffee and add an equal amount of MC. the caffeine and some other alkaloids dissolve in the MC while everything else stays in the water, collect and evaporate the MC and youre left with pretty pure caffeine ;]

[kortez617]

interesting. i think a distilled water 'pull' on the final product would purify it greatly. and instead of denatured alcohol i think one should use 151 or 190 proof everclear, nuttin but purified water and ethanol :3, agh wait but its not anhydrous so um nevermind that lol

[skipp]

A true gammers keyboard

[Pyrotechnik]

dang... i did this.... but instead of tablets i had mini-thins caffeine supplement herb pills or something... 1. opened the tablets 2. poured about 30 mL of 100 proof (50% alcohol) vodka 3. mixed the inards of the pill and the vodka 4. used a pipet to put it on a flat surface 5. let it evaporate (alcohol) 6. scraped remains into a nickelbag the thing is... my caffeine ended up brown... much like the color of hashish but a little darker... explain anyone?

[Vulcanator]

use no-doz or something else. not herbal caffeine pills that is why it was brown

[NobodyInParticular]

Using alcohol denatured with Bitrex and methanol would add bitterness, would it not?

I would strongly recommend that you update your intro to actually include the warnings, too. For example:

Caffeine is a widely used and fairly safe drug. If you are a healthy adult and consume a single overdose of less than 150 mg per kg of body weight (68 mg/lb), it will probably not kill you. However, some people have died from consuming 13 mg/kg (5.9 mg/lb) or more. Of course, much smaller doses of caffeine can do unpleasant things to your heart and mental state.

[snowmoonbear]

Firstly, the above comment people are dippy. :P Use 90% alcohol or everclear, this method is completely safe and highly recommended for any substance you want to extract. Keep alcohol away from flame and wear disposable gloves when handling any extracted substance. Also pyrex baking dishes are used instead of pane of glass to prevent loss of product. As with everything read up on dosages of the substance you are extracting and use a accurate gram/mgram scale.

[dammat]

This method definately is not safe. If you use pure grain alcohol as a solvent it would be much better. Also if you have a mel-temp melting point apparatus you can test the purity of your caffeine. caffeine melts at 237 degrees Celcius.

[schimmi]

i did the same thing to my keyboard!

[codongolev]

I wouldn't put this in my mouth even if I were about to fall asleep during my favorite episode of the office. sorry, but if you have to say it's not your fault if I kill myself, I won't do it.

[codongolev]

the keyboard is pretty sweet.

[codongolev]

why did all your apostrophes end up as �¢â�¬â�¢ ?

[Jonny Katana]

Yeah, for the love of God, use Everclear or 100% Ethyl. That is, if you enjoy seeing things.

[jamesccostello]

That's a really bad idea. First off, I don't mean to be rude, I mean to be informative, and to give a few words of caution. I cannot attest to this process's viability, but as previous commenters have pointed out, denatured alcohol is not a safe substance to consume. Also, caffeine is a drug, and in its pure form extreme caution should be taken while using it. It is extremely difficult to accurately dose the drug in it's pure form, and doing so requires accurate, calibrated milligram scales. On the tip of your finger, you can fit the amount of caffeine necessary to overdose. In addition to this, as a caffeine source, nodoz is a horribly expensive source. Pure caffeine can be had for cheap online. 400g of Pharmaceutical grade caffeine (about 3,300-8,000 cups of coffee worth) cost me $12. I like the idea of paying LESS to make sure my caffeine is safe. Oh, and while pure caffeine "isn't something you can just buy at your corner store" it is available at my local nutrition store, a less than 10 minute drive from my house, albeit it is quite expensive.

[badfrog]

Let's see... you say use 100% alcohol. According to Sunnyside Corporation (225 Carpenter Ave, Wheeling, IL), the product you are using is: "85.7% Ethyl Alcohol, 3.6% Methyl Alcohol, 1.9% Methyl Isobutyl Ketone, 1.0% Methyl Acetate, and 0.8% Solvent Naphtha (Petroleum) Light Alliphatic" When they say "denatured" they mean "rendered toxic and/or unpalatable" (read: bitter) Aside from neglecting the fact caffeine is probably the most bitter substance you'll encounter in a caffeine tablet, you've also overlooked the chances of introducing something like Bitrex (denatonium benzoate) from a denatured alcohol solvent -- a real concern. This is really a pointless exercise in Meth Lab 101 and should not be considered safe to produce or consume.

[celticjcm]

You most know how to use pure caffeine,but this is awesome!

[Doctor What]

if you are going to use caffeine in a good, healthy way, then odds are you should just leave it in the form it comes in. use responsibly!!!

[Eye Poker]

Caffeine is toxic, do not attempt this!

[Shark500]

Only in high doses as explained in other comments. unless you are a household animal... then it is very very toxic. that's why dogs / cats / (insert your pet here) isn't supposed to eat chocolate. small animals are very sensitive to caffeine.

[ARVash]

As little as 2 grams can kill you. Obviously it depends on your weight.. but understand that there are 14 year olds who would think this is the coolest thing ever. Caffeine is a drug; and if you're not stating potential dangers someone could get hurt, or even worse die. I vote you add a disclaimer, especially for kids.

[Whaleman]

seconded.

[rolfit]

Whats next? Meth!!!!!

[Thoth]

You can get 1 kilogram of food grade caffeine for $30-40 from most chemical suppliers. Methanol if ingested or absorbed through the skin is toxic because it is metabolized into formaldhyde in you body cause blindness, kidney & liver failure, plus being a carcinogen. Unless you draw you alcohol through a septum and store it with a molecular sieve. Depending on how often and how long the the bottle was open, it is probably closer to 95%. That is because alcohol is very hygroscopic absorbing moisture from the air. Rubbing alcohol can also be Isopropanol, instead of denatured ethanol. Even sub-lethal doses have an adverse effect on your health