What would happen if you accidentally used 6M HCl aqueous solution instead of sa

Question

What would happen if you accidentally used 6M HCl aqueous solution instead of saturated Na2CO3 aqueous solution when extracting caffeine from tea bags. Draw the first mechanistic step (one intermolecular arrow and any subsequent intramolecular arrows needed to finish the mechanistic step) between caffeine and HCl. If after conducting the extractions, you realized your error and using the solutions that you currently have, what would be an acceptable means of correcting your error and still obtaining caffeine solid?

Explanation / Answer

Caffeine is a weak base with some solubility in hydrochloric acid, so it will dissolve in the acid. Neutralising the acid with the sodium carbonate will put the caffeine back into the free base form.If it doesn't precipitate, you could extract with chloroform and evaporate off the solvent.

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