Are there any botanists here? Where do you go for research?

Also, has anyone ever eaten a cacao fruit itself?

Do you go to a university? If so, see if you can access your library's online databases. Most colleges have bought access to EBSCOhost.

>>7741492
I don't.

I'm also curious about the presence of caffeine. Many studies report it is present, but some do not, and suggest it stops short of synthesizing more complex methylxanthines. Which is why most of its content is theobromine and a bit of theophylline.

>>7741393
On what grounds do you base your rather absurd hypothesis?

Fermentation requires bacteria or yeast which would have to be present in all the fruiting bodies, inside the plant tissue, and you would be talking about a very special, unheard of metabolic process for them to be producing this chemical. Fermentation for that matter is usually limited to descriptions of the break down of sugars into alcohols, so get your naming conventions in order, son.

Many plants on the other hand are well known to produce these things through direct synthesis.

>>7741960
>On what grounds do you base your rather absurd hypothesis?
Sugar metabolism (probably via some form of yeast) -> Ethanol -> Some process to reduce it to acetaldehyde etc -> condensation reaction with dopamine or another monoamine (then reduction of that monoamine).

I don't think the salsolinol is created when an organism consumes the seeds. It's likely already present. Like I said, I'm trying to figure out how.

>Many plants on the other hand are well known to produce these things through direct synthesis.
Source? This is the general cluster of pathways I'm looking for. I can see salsolinol acting as an insecticide.

>>7741997
Actually, as I'm thinking about it, it probably is just through the organism's own synthesis. Dried banana generates more salsolinol via its own processes during drying, rather than from yeast growth or some such. Maybe there is a relationship between the two.

I'm not sure. Literature just says that it's there and when, not why and how.

Shameless self bump. About to resume my search.

So far I've only been told I have absurd ideas. Seems I'm an idiot no matter what I do, say, or ask. Here, there, always and forever.

The search continues. Gonna know how you are what you are theobroma cacao, to some extent. If anyone gives a shit about anything, feel free to say whatever.

>>7742855
What if the salsa is generated by tiny Mexican spiders that deposit it as part of an elaborate mating dance.

>>7742858
What if your brain is full of billions of tiny spiders guiding your neuronal growth and distributing nutrients.

What if the universe's most base, underlying machinery, are actually tiny spiders. What if the universe is part of one really big spider.

What if you're talking to a spider right now. What would you do if you came home, walked in the door, and there was a giant spider bigger than your house in your kitchen?

i do plant biology

desu i'd do exactly what you've done, all the plant papers worth reading are indexed on pubmed.

you're kind of starting off on a bad foot trying to find research on cacao in the first place. there just isnt a lot, since it's a really shitty organism to study. the genome only came out like five years ago and i have no idea how good it is. plus like, biochemistry in plants just in general isn't done that much. it's a pain in the ASS to do. if you havent found any papers already they probably dont exist.

try approaching it from the side. see if there are other, better studied plants that make similar compounds.