Energy drinks found as a better source of energy than teas by testing sugar, enzyme, protein and caffeine levels

The experiment performed questioned the energy providing ability of Sobe No Fear, Red Bull, Lipton black tea, and Arizona green tea. We considered the definition of energy as (carbohydrates) sugar and caffeine. Both have proved to increase the alertness of a person for a short amount of time after amounts are consumed (Bonci, 2002). We believe that energy drinks especially Sobe No Fear will provide as most energy thus, disproving a popular college myth. We tested black tea along with the green tea to determine if the properties of these popular teas were alike. Benedict’s assay tests positive for free ketones or aldehydes for all but Lipton black tea. Barfoed’s assay helps distinguish monosaccharides from polysaccharides tested positive for all except the black tea. Selivanoff’s assay tested positive for being an aldose sugar in the black tea. The other beverages were found to be ketose sugars. Bial’s assay showed that the energy drinks and the green tea consisted of six member rings. The black tea however, turned an unusual gold color. The Bradford assay showed that the green tea and the Sobe No Fear energy drink had the greatest protein absorption in relation to the BSA, a known amount of protein. Paper chromatography showed that there were no photosynthetic pigments present. When the caffeine test was administered, Red Bull appeared to contain the most caffeine. We predicted that the Sobe No Fear would have the greatest amount of caffeine due to it having the highest amount of carbohydrates.

The hypothesis of our experiment was that the Sobe No Fear would have both the most carbohydrates and caffeine. Through our testing we found that we were only partially correct in out hypothesis, the Red Bull contained more caffeine. We however were able to demonstrate that Green tea did not give more energy than the tested energy drinks. In order to find these results we conducted a series of tests over an eight week period. In the Benedict’s test we had expected to find that the Sobe and Red Bull and Green tea would create a red precipitate and the Black tea would not react. This would have shown us if there is a presence of free aldehydes or ketones. We found in the test that what we predicted was true and our test solutions reacted positively except for black tea. This allowed us to determine the type of sugar contained within each drink. We believed that the Barfoed's test would react similarly showing that the energy drinks and green tea would react positively while black tea would react negatively. A red precipitate formed inside of the energy drinks and Green tea and didn’t form within the black tea. The red precipitate showed that monosaccarides were present in the substance while the drinks without the red precipitate would either contain no sugar or be polysaccharides. In the Selivanoff's test we believed that the power drinks and green tea would react positively. If Selivanoff’s test results in a change to red in less than a minute the drinks contain carotene, if it took more than a minute it would contain aldose sugars. The change took less than a minute for the Red bull, Green Tea and Sobe. It took more than a minute in Glucose and black tea. This gave us more information on the types of sugars contained within our substances. In the iodine test we believed that all of the solutions would contain starch and react turning a brown color. Through testing we found that all of the solutions had a brown color change. This indicated that the substances did contain starch. We thought that Bial's test would appear positive for all of the tested substances except for the black tea. All the energy drinks turned a muddy dark brown color, which indicated six member rings while the black tea turned to a gold color. This further confirmed our results on the types of sugars within the substances. We however experienced discrepancies with our positive and negative control in the test with both proving to turn negative (Figure 4). In the chromatography test we believed that all of the teas would contain beta-carotenes and that the energy drinks would contain none of the pigments. After completing the experiment we found that the teas did not contain any pigments nor did our energy drinks (Figure 5). We believed that all of the substances would contain only a little protein in the Bradford test. Through out testing we found that there was very little protein contained in any of the substances with no substance absorbing quantitatively more light than any other (Table 2). In the caffeine test we believed that the Sobe would have the highest caffeine weight, followed by Red Bull, green tea, and black tea respectively. We found that the Caffeine contained within the Red Bull (0.055g/100mL) was slightly higher then that of the Sobe (0.051g/100mL) but still contained more than the Green tea (0.005g/100ml) and also more than the black tea (0.000g/100ml). These results disagree with the hearsay that green tea is as effective as the energy drinks as a source of energy. The amount of caffeine in the energy drinks is much higher than that in the teas so will provide a greater release in energy while the sugar content is also higher providing for a greater amount of long term energy (Bonci, 2002). There are many things that we were unable to prove or test for however. The state of mind and previous resistances of the recipient can lower the effects of caffeine and other drugs as shown through exposing a user to nicotine for extended periods of time. In our experiments we likely had a great deal of human error such as mismeasuring substances, not keeping them cold enough, using dirty glass ware and contaminating substances through touch or air. Our experimental substances were constant over the entire period allowing for a guarantee that they would have the same contents from test to test but also allowing them to be exposed to the air within a fridge over a long period of time potentially contaminating them. Within our drinks there are other energy providing substances that we were unable to test for such as theophylline in the tea which could also change our results.

Figure 3: Selivanoff's Test , Selivanoff’s test results in a change to red in less than a minute if the drinks contain carotene and aldose sugars if the color change took more than a minute. The change took less than a minute for the drinks Red bull, Green Tea and Sobe. It took more than a minute in Glucose and black tea. The Distilled water received no color change. From left to right: Positive control (Glucose), Red bull, Green Tea, Sobe, Black Tea, Negative Control (Distilled water).