ABSTRACT
Coffee has been the subject of medical interest since it came to the attention of Arabian society. Avicenna may have given the earliest written description of coffee's effects: "It fortifies the members, it cleans the skin, and dries up the humidities that are under it, and gives an excellent smell to all the body". Early physicians acknowledged coffee's energizing effects and treated coffee as a useful drug. The majority of medical research exploring the effects of coffee on health has focused on caffeine. But caffeine is only one of the pharmacologically active compounds in coffee that may influence human health. The diversity of methods to prepare coffee for drinking adds further complexity to assessing coffee's composition and possible ramifications for health. Given the many variabilities in coffee beans, preparations, and individual physiologies and behaviors, scientists face many challenges to develop research designs that can isolate the effects of coffee or caffeine on health.
