Article Coffee: Brain Booster to Go
Name _____________
1. What is the chemical name for caffeine?
2. What is the chemical formula for caffeine?
3. What characteristic do all the plants that are known to contain caffeine have in common?
4. How does caffeine work in the brain to keep you awake?
5. Is coffee a simple molecule? Explain.
6. What happens to coffee beans as they are roasted?
7. What happens in the Maillard reaction?
8. Can scientists identify all the chemicals responsible for the aroma and flavor of coffee?
9. What is the role of the antioxidants found in coffee?
10. What are nutraceuticals?
11. What are the beneficial effects of drinking a cup of coffee?
12. What are the potentially harmful effects of drinking too much coffee?
13. What’s with the dancing goats?
Coffee: Brain Booster to Go
1. What is the chemical name for caffeine?
The chemical name for caffeine is 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine.
2. What is the chemical formula for caffeine?
The chemical formula for caffeine is C8H10N4O2
3. What characteristic do all the plants that are known to contain caffeine have in common?
All the plants known to contain caffeine are recognized as brain stimulants.
4. How does caffeine work in the brain to keep you awake?
Adenosine normally binds to adenosine receptors in nerve cells, resulting in your feeling drowsy. Caffeine
preferentially binds to the adenosine receptors in the brain, blocking adenosine from binding to those
receptors, preventing you from feeling drowsy – at least temporarily, until the caffeine molecules break
down and are excreted.
5. Is coffee a simple molecule? Explain.
No, coffee is not a simple molecule. Chemists have identified more than 800 chemicals in coffee beans,
including caffeine, sucrose and other sugars, cellulose, amino acids, proteins, citric and tartaric acids, and
even formic acid.
6. What happens to coffee beans as they are roasted?
As coffee beans are roasted, some of the original chemicals disappear, even as new ones develop. The
beans’ color changes from green/blue-green to yellow, to light brown, and finally to dark brown.
7. What happens in the Maillard reaction?
In the Maillard reaction, heated sugars and amino acids in coffee beans react to form hundreds of color
and flavor molecules, which break down into even more aromatic chemicals.
8. Can scientists identify all the chemicals responsible for the aroma and flavor of coffee?
Scientists still don’t know many of the chemicals responsible for the aroma and flavor of coffee. They still
don’t know precisely what happens in the roasting process.
9. What is the role of the antioxidants found in coffee?
Antioxidants help to prevent damage to proteins and to genetic material that can lead to severe diseases
such as cancer, coronary heart disease, and stroke.
10. What are nutraceuticals?
Nutraceuticals are food extracts that have medicinal effects.
11. What are the beneficial effects of drinking a cup of coffee?
Beneficial effects of drinking a cup of coffee include improving one’s mood, increasing mental alertness,
cognition and reaction speed, and improving one’s ability to do simple math problems – but it doesn’t make
you smarter! Some studies have shown that drinking coffee can have a positive effect on one’s health by
preventing type-2 diabetes, Parkinson’s, liver and Alzheimer’s diseases, and even some forms of
cardiovascular disease and cancer.
12. What are the potentially harmful effects of drinking too much coffee?
Harmful effects of drinking too much coffee include restlessness, irritability, and sleeplessness.
13. What’s with the dancing goats?
Legend tells of a goat herder who noticed his flock dancing around a bush of red berries. When the goat
herder tried some of the berries, he, too, began dancing. A monk walking by noticed the display of
exuberance and took some of the berries back to the monastery where he was able to stay awake for allnight prayers by ingesting some of the berries. The rest of the story about coffee is “history”.