Page 189 - Encyclopedia of Chemical Compounds 3 Vols

CAFFEINE

and 1821, Caventou and Pelletier successfully extracted
Caffeine. Red atoms
caffeine, quinine, strychnine, brucine, chinchonine, and
are oxygen; white atoms are
chlorophyll (not an alkaloid) from a variety of plants. The
hydrogen; black atoms
are carbon; and blue atoms are first synthesis of caffeine was accomplished in 1895 by the
nitrogen. Gray sticks are
German chemist Emil Hermann Fischer (1852–1919), who was
double bonds. PU BL I S HERS
awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on
RESOURCE GRO U P
the alkaloids.
Caffeine belongs to a class of alkaloids called the methyl-
xanthines. Chocolate, from the cocoa tree Theobroma cacao
contains another member of the class, theobromine. Both
caffeine and theobromine are stimulants, that is, compounds

138 CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS