Chem. [ad. F. caféine, f. café coffee + -INE; see prec.] A vegetable alkaloid crystallizing in white silky needles, found in the leaves and seeds of the coffee and tea plants, the leaves of guarana, maté, etc.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 206. Coffee is … supposed to owe its characters to a peculiar chemical principle called Caffein.
1863. Watts, Dict. Chem., I. 707. Caffeine was discovered in coffee by Runge in the year 1820. Oudry, in 1827, found in tea a crystalline substance which he called theine, supposing it to be a distinct compound; but Jobat showed that it was identical with caffeine.
1869. Daily News, 22 July, 5/5. They exhibit a piece of kaffeine, of the size of a breakfast plate, produced from 120 pounds of coffee.
