"An ingredient found in cocoa beans was nearly a third more effective than cough medicine in stopping persistent coughs, researchers at Imperial College London found. The ingredient, theobromine, contributes to the bitter taste of cocoa. It works by suppressing vagus nerve activity, which is responsible for coughing."
I made the mistake of reading this to my oldest son who then coughed a couple of times and used that as an excuse to raid my stash of Hershey bars.
The bars only have 74mg of theobromine. It would take 13 of them to get as much theobromine as was used in the study.
Posted by marybeth at November 23, 2004 11:16 PM Science