From Beverage to Bioactivity: Comparative In-vitro Evaluation of the Anti-Inflammatory Potential of Caffeine from Tea and Coffee

This study compared inhibition of heat-induced egg-albumin denaturation by fractions recovered from green tea, black tea and coffee with that of pharmaceutical-grade caffeine, using ibuprofen as a reference. Caffeine-containing material was recovered by solvent extraction and examined using Mayer’s and murexide tests. The reported recovery percentages relative to theoretical yields were 11.11% for green tea, 13.33% for black tea and 10.59% for coffee. Samples prepared at nominal quantities of 1–5 mg per 100 mL were combined with egg albumin and phosphate buffer, subjected to controlled heating and evaluated by UV–visible spectrophotometry. Ibuprofen produced 81.58% inhibition. Across the tested quantities, pharmaceutical-grade caffeine showed 43.97–44.50% inhibition, whereas the green tea, black tea and coffee fractions yielded 43.93–44.48%, 43.91–44.42% and 43.38–44.44%, respectively. At the highest nominal quantity, the difference across caffeine-containing preparations was 0.08 percentage points. These closely grouped observations indicate similar responses under the reported assay conditions, but do not establish chemical equivalence or demonstrate anti-inflammatory efficacy in biological systems. The qualitative tests do not quantify extract purity, and the available results do not provide replicate-based measures of variability or unambiguous final reaction concentrations. Accordingly, the findings support a preliminary, descriptive comparison of protein-denaturation inhibition and identify a basis for subsequent chemical characterisation and independently replicated biological studies.