By Hayden George, Jill Rosenquist

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sarah Smith

Abstract

Energy drinks contain high levels of caffeine and numerous B vitamins. Bang Energy promotes beneficial vitamins for athletes, as well as being a source of energy for consumers. We experimentally determined the amount of caffeine, riboflavin (B2), and pyridoxine (B6) present in a cotton candy flavored Bang Energy drink utilizing High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). A set of standards was created and chromatograms were taken at the optimal wavelength for each compound (245nm, 446nm, and 323nm, respectively). The data obtained indicated the retention times of each compound and was used to create a calibration curve of peak area vs concentration. The concentration of caffeine, vitamin B2, and vitamin B6 was thus determined. Our selected energy drink had a caffeine concentration of 3.17mM, which aligns with the nutrition label. Riboflavin and pyridoxine had no discernible peaks in the chromatogram. This outcome was expected for B2, as it is not present in our sample– B6, however, is present in Bang Energy drinks. The lack of pyridoxine peak is due to the concentration of the diluted sample being below the LOD. In future work, increasing the concentration of our sample used for analysis may lead to more favorable results.