Theobromine (3,7-dimethylxanthine) is a compound similar in structure to
caffeine and a major component of cocoa and a minor component of coffee and
tea. When ingested, about 11% of caffeine is metabolized into theobromine
via 1-N-demethylation, making it the second major metabolite after paraxanthine.
Like caffeine, orally administered theobromine is highly bioavailable and
excreted primarily as metabolites. Theobromine has a longer half-life than
caffeine, around 7-8 hours.
Theobromine is marketed in many products as a weight loss aid and sometimes
as a stimulant. However, there is little reason to believe that it is superior
to caffeine in any way. Although theobromine has diuretic properties similar
to those of caffeine, it is only a weak adenosine antagonist, and has only
minor CNS stimulant effects. This is reflected in a dose discrimination study
in humans, in which not all of the subjects were able to discriminate theobromine
from placebo, and those that were were only able to do so at much higher
doses than caffeine (in the range of 100-560 mg for theobromine compared
to 1.8-178 mg for caffeine). In rats, theobromine is not as effective at
reducing food intake as caffeine, but has a similar level of toxicity. Additionally,
in an in vitro study, theobromine was less effective than caffeine at stimulating
lipolysis in adipocytes. Theobromine does have therapeutic use in the treatment
of some conditions, such as high blood pressure (because of vasodilating
properties) and cardiac failure (because of diuretic properties), but the
present evidence is against the use of theobromine for fat loss when compared
to other options.
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