[Microbial breakdown of caffeine (author's transl)].

A bacterium, capable of growing aerobically with caffeine as its sole source of carbon and nitrogen, was isolated from soil and identified as Pseudomonas putida sp. The breakdown of caffeine begins with stepwise demethylation, which leads via various N-methyl-purines to xanthine each step yielding formaldehyde. Xanthine is then broken down via uric acid, allantoin, allantoic acid and further intermediates to urea and glyoxylic acid, which serves as the actual source of carbon.