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13.12.2009

Phenol in cocoa has same effect as clenbuterol

Imagine, you have contacts in the cocoa world, you're in nutritional supplements yourself, you love to make doping hunters' lives a misery, and on top of that, you've got a stack of money you need to get rid of. Look no further. We’ve got a great idea for you. And we're offering it free of charge.

Among the most effective body recompositioning drugs are the beta-2-agonists. Clenbuterol is a well known one, but salbutamol and fenoterol are also beta-2-agonists. What they have in common is that they stimulate the beta-2-adrenoreceptor in the body, thus promoting increase of muscle mass and decrease of fat mass. Use of the substances is forbidden in sport and supplements makers are not allowed to put them in their products.

However, these rules do not apply to a class of metabolites found in cocoa. These metabolites are in the bean, but also in the rest of the plant. The cocoa plant probably manufactures them to increase its resistance against disease and other forms of plant stress, French biologists wrote in 2003. [Ann Bot. 2003 Oct;92(4):613-23.]

The phytochemicals in question are metabolites of tyrosine. The standard model for the amino acids is N-caffeoyldopamine [see figure above]. The substance also goes by the name of clovamide. Clovamide and its analogues imitate the effects of clenbuterol in test-tube trials. This was discovered in research done at the Phytonutrients Laboratory, part of the American ministry of agriculture, and published in 2005 in FASEB Journal.

The researchers introduced clovamide and its analogues to immune cells with beta-2-receptors. To determine how well the substances were capable of stimulating the receptor the researchers measured the cAMP concentration. The more cAMP the cells produced, the better the beta-2-receptor stimulated clovamide and its analogues. The figure below shows that, within this category of substances, clovamide and its analogue N-coumaroyldopamine are the most powerful beta-2-agonists.

But it gets really interesting when the researchers compare the adrenergic effect of clovamide and its analogue with that of fenoterol and salbutamol. The effect is almost identical.

Now, there is already an extract of bioactive substances from cocoa on the market: chocamine. Examination of U.S. Patent 7,048,941, which New World Enterprizes filed to protect chocamine, shows that the amount of these substances in chocamine is on the low side. There's room for improvement.

Now for a catchy name. Errrrm...

What about Chocodrol^(tm)?

Source:
FASEB J. 2005 Apr;19(6):497-502.