Antioxidant capacity and caffeine content in specialty coffees from El Salvador

Abstract

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages worldwide, and in El Salvador it has been one of the most important crops for years, producing a great variety of specialty coffees. In this study, it was carried out the antioxidant activity by the DPPH radical capture method and the quantification of caffeine in cups by HPLC-PDA, of 12 Salvadoran specialty coffees that participated in the cupping contest "La Taza de la Excelencia 2019”. It was determined that the samples contain an antioxidant capacity in a range of 0.121-0.281 mmol Trolox equivalents (ET)/g. Regarding caffeine content, it presented values between 0.617-1.163%, typical of the Coffea arabica species.