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Team:UIUC Illinois/Project/Future
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<br>Canines and many small animals are incapable of metabolizing theobromine and related stimulants as fast as humans can. Chocolate contains theobromine, an alkaloid that has stimulant properties. An excess of the stimulant builds up and begins to overstimulate the animal, thus leading to many malicious side effects. Ranging from slight nausea to death, consumption of these compounds are harmful for the animal. Chocolate can affect the animal regardless of the amount administered. Even the smallest amounts can produce side affects like diarrhea. In fact, theobromine has been employed to ward off pests of the same genus as canines: "Results indicate that mixtures of theobromine and caffeine have the potential to be developed into a selective, effective, and socially acceptable toxicant for the control of pest coyotes."[1] Caffeine in humans is degraded via a cascade mediated by Cytochrome P450. This is the primary molecule that allows for xanthine demethylation. In canines and smaller species, the cytochromes are available, however altered in a way that prevents caffeine degradation! Despite sequence homology to Human's P450, a canine's metabolism does not function similarly! | <br>Canines and many small animals are incapable of metabolizing theobromine and related stimulants as fast as humans can. Chocolate contains theobromine, an alkaloid that has stimulant properties. An excess of the stimulant builds up and begins to overstimulate the animal, thus leading to many malicious side effects. Ranging from slight nausea to death, consumption of these compounds are harmful for the animal. Chocolate can affect the animal regardless of the amount administered. Even the smallest amounts can produce side affects like diarrhea. In fact, theobromine has been employed to ward off pests of the same genus as canines: "Results indicate that mixtures of theobromine and caffeine have the potential to be developed into a selective, effective, and socially acceptable toxicant for the control of pest coyotes."[1] Caffeine in humans is degraded via a cascade mediated by Cytochrome P450. This is the primary molecule that allows for xanthine demethylation. In canines and smaller species, the cytochromes are available, however altered in a way that prevents caffeine degradation! Despite sequence homology to Human's P450, a canine's metabolism does not function similarly! | ||
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Revision as of 18:22, 17 October 2014
Future Directions
"Biology has atleast 50 more interesting years"
Environmental Remediation
Waste Matters Knowing that caffeine could be degraded, we wondered what became of the coffee plants that were used and abused for the world's most socially acceptable drug. Coffee production is no light matter. Large amounts of water go into coffee processing, and subsequently a large amount of waste is developed. "Commercial coffee is obtained from coffee cherries, 6% of which generate the coffee powder whereas the remaining 94% constitute the by- products such as husk, pulp water etc." [3]
What just happened?
Canines and many small animals are incapable of metabolizing theobromine and related stimulants as fast as humans can. Chocolate contains theobromine, an alkaloid that has stimulant properties. An excess of the stimulant builds up and begins to overstimulate the animal, thus leading to many malicious side effects. Ranging from slight nausea to death, consumption of these compounds are harmful for the animal. Chocolate can affect the animal regardless of the amount administered. Even the smallest amounts can produce side affects like diarrhea. In fact, theobromine has been employed to ward off pests of the same genus as canines: "Results indicate that mixtures of theobromine and caffeine have the potential to be developed into a selective, effective, and socially acceptable toxicant for the control of pest coyotes."[1] Caffeine in humans is degraded via a cascade mediated by Cytochrome P450. This is the primary molecule that allows for xanthine demethylation. In canines and smaller species, the cytochromes are available, however altered in a way that prevents caffeine degradation! Despite sequence homology to Human's P450, a canine's metabolism does not function similarly!
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