"However since many healthcare workers rely on the stimulant effects of caffeine to get them through the day, one could posit that it is one of the most clinically important substances in the medical world!"
"The word caffeine was first recorded in print in 1830, a direct borrowing from the French coinage caféine, itself derived from café, the French for coffee, in turn borrowed from the Italian caffè, meaning the same thing. The suffix “-ine” is a common usage for chemicals – think of fluorine or cocaine – and is ultimately from the Latin suffix “-ina” used for abstract nouns 5."
"The word caffeine was first recorded in print in 1830, a direct borrowing from the French coinage caféine, itself derived from café, the French for coffee, in turn borrowed from the Italian caffè, meaning the same thing. The suffix “-ine” is a common usage for chemicals – think of fluorine or cocaine – and is ultimately from the Latin suffix “-ina” used for abstract nouns 5."
"Caffeine was first obtained in an impure form in 1819 by the German chemist, Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge (1794-1867) from the Coffea arabica plant. A French pharmacologist, Joseph Caventou (1795-1878) was the first to isolate it in a pure form in 1822. Interestingly, a substance called theine purified from the Chinese tea plant in 1838 by Carl Jobst, was later shown to be the one and same molecule as caffeine 4,7. The first chemical synthesis of caffeine was achieved in 1895 by the Nobel Prize winning German chemist Emil Fischer (1852-1919) 7,9,10."
Expected headings
"Pharmacodynamics"
"Mechanism of action"
"Physiological effects"
"Chemically, caffeine is 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine, i.e. a methylated form of xanthine. The normal catabolism of cellular purines, e.g. adenine and guanine, results in formation of xanthine, another purine, which itself is converted into uric acid by the action of xanthine oxidase 2,3,6,7. Other medically-important xanthines include theophylline (1,3-dimethylxanthine) and theobromine (3,7-dimethylxanthine). All these molecules are phytochemicals, that is of plant origin, and are thought to have originally arose as part of plants’ defences against predators, principally insects 3,6."
"Undesirable effects of caffeine become apparent in most individuals with >500 mg doses and this includes edginess, anxiety, restlessness, irritability, nausea, diaphoresis, tremors, paraesthesia, and palpitations 7."
"At higher doses, that is sub-gram and gram levels, caffeine becomes toxic with a broad range of clinical effects including arrhythmias, cardiac ischaemia, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, vomiting, seizures, loss of consciousness, electrolyte disturbances, and even death 7."
"Caffeine’s effects are dose-dependent. Its stimulant effects which include better concentration, wakefulness and contentedness tend to occur with"