Caffeine, also known as methyltheobromine, is a methylxanthine alkaloid, found in cocoa, coffee, tea, and a few other plants, e.g., Cola acuminata Schott & Endl., Ilex guayusa Loes, I. paraguariensis A. St.-Hil., I. vomitoria Sol. ex Aiton, Paullinia cupana Kunth. and P. yoco R. E. Schult. & Killip. Caffeine is widely used in various energy drinks, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), inclusive of ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) or ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC), is the most widely used technique for caffeine analysis. This review article critically appraises the literature published in 2025 on caffeine analysis from different matrices using HPLC, revealing the popularity and usefulness of this chromatographic technique in the analysis and quantification of caffeine in different matrices. While an increase in the use of UPLC (or UHPLC) was observed, conventional HPLC using standard 5 μm columns of 150 or 250 mm length remained the instrument of choice because of its lower price than a UPLC (or UHPLC) system. Only a handful of studies reported in 2025 used an MS detector, but many of the studies used a UV or diode array detector (DAD, also known as photodiode array detector, PDA). Most of the studies published last year involved caffeine analysis in various cocoa, coffee, and tea samples.
Nahar et al. (Thu,) studied this question.