Talk:Theobromine

How does caffeine "increase stress"?

This is not mentioned in the caffeine article. I sure would like to see a source.

From the caffeine article: "Symptoms of caffeine intoxication include: restlessness, nervousness, excitement..." I guess that the general idea is that large doses of caffeine often induce stress-like symptoms. Caffeine in smaller doses has a slightly similar effect, but 'stress' is a very strong word for it.--Simen 88 13:39, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

How is chocolate "safe for humans to consume in large quantities"?

Could someone clarify the following statement, which is somewhat confusing: "In chocolate, theobromine exists in doses that are safe for humans to consume in large quantities"

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Read the whole statement: In chocolate, theobromine exists in doses that are safe for humans to consume in large quantities (i.e. you cannot easily kill yourself by consuming enough chocolate to induce theobromine poisoning, as you would get tired of eating chocolate first), but can be lethal for animals such as dogs and horses (i.e. a quantity of chocolate you could safely eat can kill your dog, even adjusting for the different body masses), as they metabolize theobromine more slowly. N0YKG 21:01, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

Hmm, it is a rather clumsy sentence. Instead of

"In chocolate, theobromine exists in doses that are safe for humans to consume in large quantities, but can be lethal for animals such as dogs and horses, as they metabolize theobromine more slowly."

I suggest:

"Very high levels of theobromine can be dangerous to some mammals. Humans metabolise theobromine quickly, making it almost impossible to suffer harm from theobromine poisoning due to excessive chocolate consumption. Other animals, including horses and dogs, metabolise theobromine much more slowly, so even moderate chocolate consumption can be fatal."

but a better version yet would say why and how:

"Very high levels of theobromine can be dangerous because XXXX. Humans metabolise theobromine quickly (broken down by the liver or what?), making it almost impossible to suffer harm from theobromine poisoning due to excessive chocolate consumption. Other animals, including horses and dogs, metabolise theobromine much more slowly, so even moderate chocolate consumption can be fatal."

Can someone explain the pathology and metabolism, to fill out my latter suggestion? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:14, July 19, 2005 (UTC)

Could we get a correct molecular structure for Theobromine on this page?

I just did an elemental analysis on the ball and stick Theobromine molecule on my desk and found that, contrary to the picture we offer to readers, there are 7 carbons and 8 hydrogens in the Theobromine molecule. I am in the middle of a chimpanzee agonistic political turf battle right now myself, but the next time I take a coffee break, I will put two methyl groups on the two sticks with no balls.  :)) Would you agree that this should be done? Perhaps, we could just start with the caffeine molecule Caffeine molecular structure and replace the methyl group between the two carbonyls with a hydrogen. What do you think? ---Rednblu | Talk 16:08, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

Why? The "sticks with no balls" clearly terminate in methyl groups; anything else would need to be shown, but the methyl groups come as standard. EdC 22:01, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

From PNA/Chemicals

• Theobromine need a check on teratogenicity and mutagenicity

the article is not clear. I've removed Theobromine from Category:Teratogens --Melaen 21:55, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Caffeine article says that caffeine is metabolized to it

The Caffeine article says that caffeine is metabolized to three components one of which is theobromine. If that's true, shouldn't this article reflect that. Here I read theobromine has very different effects from caffeine. In that case that statement wouldn't be very precise would it. --Fs 11:48, 17 March 2006 (UTC)