Extracting the theobromine from cocoa powder

Theobromine is an interesting molecule and is very similar to caffeine. It appears in a high concentration in cocoa (a small amount of caffeine is also in cocoa).

In this video, I am extracting theobromine from cocoa. In the future, I might prepare cocoa powder from raw cocoa pods.

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[mannys]

Nile I love this style of intro with you in the shot talking briefly about the subject matter. I hope you'll consider doing it much more often. Thanks for being awesome.

[bbrockert]

This hot cocoa recipe tastes terrible.

[vincentyap]

Phloroglucinol ('Floroglucinol') = No fluorine
Chlorogenic acid = No chlorine
Theobromine = No bromine
Phosgene = No phosphorous

Pls

[emilalmberg]

Your video looks much more professional now that you present the topic at the beginning.

[vinish]

0:43 me telling people why meth and adderall are different

[-Jumbus]

Great video! I like the side notes that you put up on the screen for people to read if they want to. They give more basic information that a lot of people might already know, but it's very helpful for a high school student like myself who's trying to learn more about chemistry.

[Meoiswa]

"in which NileRed finds an excuse to use hot piranha"

[MrAndriuxin]

i was expecting him to say "everything is more or less easy to get a hold of except for the cocoa powder"

[mellow]

Favorite science channel tbh. He’s the one guy that doesn’t have an annoying voice and is genuinely nice to listen too.

[Gravitron]

After many years I've finally discovered that this specifically gives me migraines.

[MalinCruceru]

really like the new format where you actually can be seen

[BreakingVlad]

Maybe you could use a Soxhlet apparatus in order to do this extraction, this should reduce the amount of used DCM, and with larger times you could have a better extraction of theobromine.

[roguepoops]

Received my beakers about 2 weeks ago, they are of great quality and the price is hard to beat! One thing, if you order the set, do not nest them in each other! the two largest sizes can stick inside each other and I made a small scratch on the inside of the largest (500 mL I believe) extracting the other. Completely my fault for trying to make them easier to carry, but just something to be aware of.

Thanks again NileRed, I hope you get some more types of branded glassware in the future! As always, keep up the excellent work!

[ztech-consulting]

You rock dude! I was never good in chemistry during high school, but that being said, watching your videos makes me wish I was.

Keep on doing what you're doing!

[jadenephrite]

Regarding 0:28, the name Theobroma comes from Greek which means food of the gods. The Theobroma Cacao tree originated in ancient times from Pre-Columbian Central America.

[jessecohen]

First: really fun video! :)

Second: you should consider getting a Soxhlet extractor; the solvent efficiency of your extraction step would probably have been improved considerably by using one. You probably also lost quite a bit of your yield percentage to your final filtration step since the total yield is already quite small; in your place, I probably would have redissolved the theobromine in an appropriate solvent directly from the filtration funnel and recrystallized it.

Edit: looks like some folks beat me to the punch with the Soxhlet extractor comment. You shouldn't need to mix the cocoa with anything to get the extractor to drain, though; any sufficiently fine filter paper ought to do the trick as long as you don't let it block the draining tube.

[ambitiousdentist]

i really prefer the way you presented this video from your previous ones. The face to face really helps me digest the information.

[troyna]

thanks for including the cleanup details. your the most throughout youtuber i watch.

[Psychaotix]

I have to admit, when I watched the video and you said it's one where it takes a while, I thought about the Soxhlet extractor as well. It seems perfect, and you could run it for a VERY long time to maximise your extraction. But everyone else beat me to that, so let me just say it's a good video, and I hope you keep it up!

By the way, you should work something out and collab with NurdRage. I think they're canadian as well, at least based on something said in an old video. Let the sciency part of youtube explode!

[cgarzs]

"to use hot piranha, which shreds apart organic material"
All shall bow before my army of sexy hot piranha fish!