Determination of Theobromine and Caffeine in Cocoa Powder and Cacao Shell Tincture by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

A high performance liquid chromatography method for determination of theobromine and caffeine in cocoa powder and cacao shell tincture was established Theobromine and caffeine were separated from cacao products by using Hypersil ODS column (125mm×4mm i. d.)and mobile phase of methyl alcohol-acetic acid-water (20:1:79)with a flowrate of lm l/min. The eluates were monitored with DAD detector at 275 nm. The average recoveries of theobromine and caffeine were 98.6% ±0.71% and 97.1% ±0.80% respectively. The RSD of theobromine and caffeine were 0.80 and 1.49 respectively.