Determination of Caffeine Concentrations in Over-the Counter Migraine Medicines using HPLC.   Britta Anderson; Kaleb Jentzsch; Wesley Williams, Department of Chemistry, Oregon State University, 2006.

Abstract

High performance liquid chromatography has been used to determine the concentrations of caffeine in two migraine headache pain relievers, Kroger and Excedrin. It was hypothesized that the name brand Excedrin would contain more caffeine and thus could be more habit forming. The average values obtained in relation to the Kroger and Excedrin samples were 43.1± 1.84 mg per tablet, and 53.9 ± 4.31 mg per tablet. Both values obtained are significantly less than the literature value of 65 mg per tablet. The method used was modeled after the method found in the article “ Quantitative HPLC Analysis of an Analgesic/Caffeine Formulation: Determination of Caffeine” by GK Ferguson.