Hello all! I have played with the idea to extract the goodies from cacao (Theobroma cacao) quite a while. In my opinion cacao has the best xanthine-cocktail, far better than coffee, tea, Guarana and Yerba mate. Cacao contains mostly Theobromine, and the effects of this Caffeine-metabolite is more of a warm feeling in addition to the stimulating effects.

However, the content of Xanthines in Cacao is very low, even with the untreated cacao I have access to. Therefore I am thinking about trying an extraction. Could you please offer some insight in how this could be done? I don't need a >99 % pure product, I just want to be able to consume a high dose without drinking 200 cups. I am no advanced chemist, but I know some basics and have access to some basic substances.

I totally agree with you in every respect. T. cacao is an amazing plant, I regularly just eat raw cacao nibs or an excellent 25x extract that I get(the 15x has added caffeine but isn't too bad) 2-3g in a cup of coffee or in my case yerba mate with milk, cinnamon and sugar... B) The long lasting theoboromine keeps me going all day, but isn't overwhelming or overstimulating. The extract is available from a vendor (pm me)

I am not sure how one would perform the extract, but pure thoeboromine is pretty cheap online anyway. The extracts are more expensive, but I like the full spectrum 25x best.

I have been looking to the same thing for quite awhile now as well. There's a claim of 5-20% mass of xanthines in the cocoa polyphenol extract, which do include flavanoid tannins and theobromine. An A/B extraction using tartaric acid and potassium carbonate has been suggested and wouldnt see why it wouldn't work.