CAFFEIN- YIELDING PLANTS. 



By JOSEPH LAUTERER, M.D. 



[Read before the Royal Society of Queensland, September 7, 1895.1 



At the last annual meeting of the Acclimatisation Society His 

 Excellency the Governor, Sir H. W. Norman, said he could not 

 see a reason why we ought not to grow our own tea and coffee 

 in Queensland. As there are plenty of coffee trees and also of 

 tea shrubs growing here in Brisbane, I undertook a series of 

 investigations concerning the chemical constituents of the 

 different parts of these plants and of the quality of the 

 Queensland product. In spite of the abundant literature on the 

 subject, 1 was able to find out some new points worthy of 

 interest, never mentioned before. 



As Mr. Bernays, in his excellent " Cultural Industries for 

 Queensland," has pointed out, the coffee tree grows best at an 

 elevation of about 2500 feet above sea level. Brazil furnishes 

 now the half of the coffee used in the whole world. The young 

 trees want shade or they will not grow. In the third year 

 each plant will give a first crop, about one shilling's worth, and 

 the value of the crop will increase for the next two or three years. 

 The berries do not get ripe at once, and the gathering is extended 

 over four to six weeks. 100 parts of ripe coffee berries, gathered 

 in Brisbane, I found to consist of 36 parts of pulp and 64 parts 

 of beans included in the parchment. In these 100 parts I found 

 57 parts of water, 13 parts of dry pulp, 10 parts of parchment, 

 and 20 parts of beans. Fresh ripe beans contain 0'4 per cent, 

 of caffein. The quantity of cured beans (before roasting) will 

 just amount to the fifth part of the weight of the fresh ripe 

 berries. The pulp (13 per cent, of the dry berry) is always 



