[Zami87]

Hi there!I read a story about a dog who died from eating too much chocolate. I know that chocolate is toxic but I thought maybe I could somehow isolate theobromine from different kinds of chocolate and deduce which kind is the most toxic.
But there is a problem:nobody knows how to isolate theobromine from chocolate(even some University professors!).Please help(books, sites ,PROTOCOLS).Thanks!
ps I already tried PubMed but only abstracts available.Jana

[ja07]

Hi Zami87

Theobromine is an alkoloid to my knowledge. There are many alkoloid extraction procedures for extracting alkoloids from organic (plant) matter. I wonder how applicable this would be to your chocolate??  

I did a very, very breif google search:
:Edited:

Im sure if you looked up some text books they would have this information.

Hope that helps  


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Please don't post links to drug websites.

[Zami87]

Hi Zami87

Theobromine is an alkoloid to my knowledge. There are many alkoloid extraction procedures for extracting alkoloids from organic (plant) matter. I wonder how applicable this would be to your chocolate??  

I did a very, very breif google search:
:Edited:

Im sure if you looked up some text books they would have this information.

Hope that helps  

Thanks.It's good for beginning.Our "local textbooks" are not so detailed.Can you get me titles of  some good books?

[ja07]

Im sure if you looked up some text books they would have this information.

Okay, I looked up my basic 1st year/2nd year uni text books.... nothing on alkaloid extraction procedures  

I searched alkaloids on my Uni's catalogue and came up with "Alkaloid chemistry" by Manfred Hesse and "Alkaloids : biochemistry, ecology, and medicinal applications" by Margaret F. Roberts and Michael Wink

Might be irrelavent or may contain some useful information  

Good luck

[Zami87]

I searched alkaloids on my Uni's catalogue and came up with "Alkaloid chemistry" by Manfred Hesse and "Alkaloids : biochemistry, ecology, and medicinal applications" by Margaret F. Roberts and Michael Wink

Good luck

OK Thanks I'll try to find those books.

[hmx9123]

Extraction process: Schwyzer, Die Fabrikation Pharmazeutischer und Chemisch-Technischer Produkte (Berlin, 1931).

Hope you can read German.

Theobromine is great stuff.  Since you know little about it, first do a google search.  Then do a google search for caffiene.  You can also look these up on www.chemfinder.com  Make sure that you note the similarities--they occur together naturally in at least some abundance and therefore you will have a difficult time separating the two.  Aside from that, you should look in the Merck Index, available at your local library.  There is also a book called 'The Chemistry of Chocolate' put out not too long ago.

Theobromine
3,7-dihydro-3,7-dimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione.  Also 3,7-dimethylxanthine.
C7H8N4O2
MW 180.17
The principal alkaloid of the cacao bean wihich contains 1.5-3% of the vase.  Also present in cola nuts and in tea.  Usually extracted from the hull of cacao beans which contain 0.7-1.2%.

Synthesis is from 1898.

mp 357 deg C, subl. 290-295 deg C.

[underdosed]

Ok, there's no standard way to do this. I'd go with extracting some ground chocolate into ether and then running a chromotography column (on a small scale) combine the like fractions and use NMR to see what you've got in what fraction. Given the multitude of compounds in chocolate i think a column is the only real way.

[Zami87]

Thanks a lot people!  I have got something valuable!  
GREAT SITE hmx9123!


 

[constant thinker]

Theobromine is a stimulant? I never knew that. I thought it just existed with caffeine.