Theobromine Theobromine Theobromine, formerly known as xantheose, is a bitter alkaloid of the cacao plant, with the chemical formula CHNO. It is found in chocolate, as well as in a number of other foods, including the leaves of the tea plant, and the kola nut. It is classified as a xanthine alkaloid, others of which include theophylline and caffeine. The compounds differ in that caffeine has an extra methyl group (see under Pharmacology section). 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
Theobroma cacao there were two foci for domestication, one in the Lacandon Jungle area of Mexico and another in lowland South America. More recent studies of patterns of DNA diversity, however, suggest that this is not the case. One study sampled 1241 trees and classified them into 10 distinct genetic clusters. This study also identified areas, for example around Iquitos in modern Peru and Ecuador, where representatives of several genetic clusters originated more than 5000 years ago, leading to development of the variety, Nacional cocoa bean. This result suggests that this is where "T. cacao" was originally domesticated, probably for the pulp