The Collaborative International Dictionary
cacaine \ca*ca"ine\, n. (Chem.) The essential principle of cacao; -- now called theobromine. [1913 Webster] ||
Wiktionary
n. (context chemistry English) An alkaloid, of similar structure to caffeine, found in chocolate and cocoa.
Wikipedia
Theobromine, formerly known as xantheose, is a bitter alkaloid of the cacao plant, with the chemical formula C H N O. It is found in chocolate, as well as in a number of other foods, including the leaves of the tea plant, and the kola (or cola) nut. It is classified as a xanthine alkaloid, which also include the similar compounds theophylline and caffeine. The compounds differ in their methylation.
Despite its name, the compound contains no bromine—theobromine is derived from Theobroma, the name of the genus of the cacao tree, (which itself is made up of the Greek roots theo (" god") and broma ("food"), meaning "god food" with the suffix -ine given to alkaloids and other basic nitrogen-containing compounds.
Theobromine is a slightly water- soluble (330 mg/L), crystalline, bitter powder. Theobromine is white or colourless, but commercial samples can be yellowish. It has an effect similar to, but lesser than, that of caffeine in the human nervous system, making it a lesser homologue. Theobromine is an isomer of theophylline, as well as paraxanthine. Theobromine is categorized as a dimethyl xanthine.
Theobromine was first discovered in 1841 in cacao beans by Russian chemist Alexander Voskresensky. Synthesis of theobromine from xanthine was first reported in 1882 by Hermann Emil Fischer.
Usage examples of "theobromine".
Synthetically it may be prepared by the methylation of silver theobromine and silver theophyllin or by boiling heteroxanthine with methyl iodide and potash.
Freeholders might be chocoholics, but she preferred caffeine to theobromine as a stimulant.
But you mustn't give him chocolate because it's got caffeine and theobromine in it, which are methylxanthines, and it's poisonous for rats in large quantities.