How much naturally occurring caffeine is in a single serving?
Dr. Mowery, Ph.D. and his colleagues found that xanthine compounds in Yerba Mate` are very similar to the xanthines found in caffeine. Although the xanthines have similar chemistries, each has a unique set of properties, concluding that even if there was caffeine in Mate, the amount would be so tiny that it would take 100 tea bags of Mate in a 6-ounce cup of water to equal the caffeine in a 6-ounce serving of regular coffee. Recent U.S. studies claim yerba mate does contain caffeine. It just contains a much lesser amount, pound for pound, than that of all other similar plant beverages. The caffeine content of yerba mate has been assayed to contain between .7 and 2%, with the average leaf yielding about 1% caffeine. In living plants, xanthines (such as caffeine) are bound to sugars, phenols, and are set free or unbound during the roasting and/or fermenting processes. The mateine chemical “discovered” is probably just caffeine bound to a tannin or phenol in the raw leaf. The same would t
