What Are Five Sources Of Caffeine Found In Nature?

Several plants naturally rich in caffeine provide the main ingredients for popular beverages and confections. The best-known caffeine-producing plants originate in South America, Africa and Asia. A North American relative of the evergreen holly used for yerba mate in South America also produces caffeine in its leaves. Tea brewed from Ilex vomitoria or youpon substituted for coffee and tea during the American Civil War, according to Virtual Mass Spectrometry Laboratories.

Coffee

The red berries of a shrub native to Ethiopia provide the raw material for your morning cup of coffee, one of the most familiar sources of caffeine today. The coffee tree produces a bean-like seed first used by Ethiopian tribesmen. Ground coffee beans mixed with animal fat created a stimulating energy tonic, according to ethnobotanist Chris Kilham of the Medicine Hunter website. Arabian users invented the coffee roasting and brewing process and monopolized coffee bean production until the 1600s. Three cups of coffee provides about 300 mg of caffeine, a safe amount to drink daily.

Tea

Tea brewed from the leaves of Camellia sinensis ranks second to water as the world's most commonly consumed beverage, according to a 1992 article in "Preventive Medicine." The three main types of tea use either the dried green leaves or fermented leaves of the tea plant. Partial fermentation yields oolong tea and full fermentation creates black tea. Caffeine makes up about 3 percent of the tea's dry weight. American brewing styles yield tea with slightly less caffeine than coffee, but one cup of strong tea could delivers as much as 110 mg.

Cacao

Fruits of the cacao tree, a native of tropical South America, yield the cacao powder and cocoa butter used in chocolate drinks and candies. Each cacao fruit pod holds up to 60 beans. After fermentation, pressing the ground beans yields fat and other compounds, including theobromine, a form of caffeine. Chocolate and cocoa products contain much less caffeine than tea or coffee. One cup of cocoa holds about 13 mg, according to Purdue University. The amount of caffeine in confections depends on the percentage of cacao powder used. Dark, bitter chocolate contains more cacao.

Cola Nut

Traditional uses of the cola nut of western Africa reach back thousands of years. Africans chewed the nuts of the cola tree raw, ground the nuts into powder and used the cola seeds to brew a strong tonic. Cola's stimulant effect earned it a reputation as an energy tonic and aphrodisiac. Today plantations in many tropical areas of the world provide cola nuts for popular soft drinks. The cola in a 12 oz. soft drink yields up to 90 mg of caffeine.

Yerba Mate

Wild Ilex paraguariensis trees provided the only dependable source of South American yerba mate until plantations began production in the late 1800s. The young leaves of this evergreen holly contain up to 2 percent caffeine by dry weight, with another 0.9 percent of theobromine, a caffeine derivative. One cup of mate tea contains about 85 mg of caffeine, roughly the same as a cup of coffee. Traditional brewing methods use the same leaves to brew several rounds of the drink. Total caffeine from one batch could exceed 260 mg, according to a November 2007 article in "Journal of Food Science."