In West Africa, low adoption of agricultural innovations by farmers has been partly due to the complexity of the innovation structure or new knowledge beyond the farmers’ socio-economic adaptive capacities. Different attempts have been made to improve cocoa beans quality in Nigeria among which was the recommendation of ‘improved cultural practices’ or ‘best known practices’ (ICMP). This had rec...

The medicinal use of cocoa has a long history dating back almost five hundred years when Hernán Cortés's first experienced the drink in Mesoamerica. Doctors in Europe recommended the beverage to patients in the 1700s, and later American physicians followed suit and prescribed the drink in early America--ca. 1800s. This article delineates the historic trajectory of cocoa consumption, the linkage...

We may not be able to make you love reading, but programming the iphone user experience developing and designing cocoa touch applications will lead you to love reading starting from now. Book is the window to open the new world. The world that you want is in the better stage and level. World will always guide you to even the prestige stage of the life. You know, this is some of how reading will...

Nowadays, it is common practice to distinguish between economic, social and environmental sustainability; all three have to be satisfied to achieve full sustainability. However, in a presentation to the Malaysian International Cocoa Conference in July1, Jan Vingerhoets, Executive Director of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) made it clear that he believes economic sustainability to be...

This work describes the applicability of an in vitro digestion model for the evaluation of the digestibility and bioaccessibility of cocoa polyphenols (procyanidins, phenolic acids, and flavones) and for the study of the food matrix effect in relation with the fat content. For this purpose, two cocoa samples, cocoa liquor ( approximately 50% fat content) and cocoa powder ( approximately 15% fat...

In order to determine the levels of ochratoxin A (OTA) in cocoa and cocoa products available in Canada, a previously published analytical method, with minor modifications to the extraction and immunoaffinity clean-up and inclusion of an evaporation step, was initially used (Method I). To improve the low method recoveries (46-61%), 40% methanol was then included in the aqueous sodium bicarbonate...

Black tea, green tea, red wine, and cocoa are high in phenolic phytochemicals, among which theaflavin, epigallocatechin gallate, resveratrol, and procyanidin, respectively, have been extensively investigated due to their possible role as chemopreventive agents based on their antioxidant capacities. The present study compared the phenolic and flavonoid contents and total antioxidant capacities o...

BACKGROUND In recent years, there has been increased interest in the potential health-related benefits of antioxidant- and phytochemical-rich dark chocolate and cocoa. OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to examine the short-term (6 wk) effects of dark chocolate and cocoa on variables associated with neuropsychological functioning and cardiovascular health in healthy older adults. DESI...

The sensory quality and the contents of quality-determining chemical compounds in unfermented and fermented cocoa from 100 cacao trees (individual genotypes) representing groups of nine genotype spectra (GG), grown at smallholder plantings in the municipality of Waslala, Nicaragua, were evaluated for two successive harvest periods. Cocoa samples were fermented using a technique mimicking recomm...

Cocoa butter is the characteristic fat ingredient of chocolate industries, presenting itself as the most important component in all formulations. Its crystallization is a critical factor associated with the structure and properties of many confectionery foods. The stability of rich-fat processed products is influenced by changes in crystallization processes. With respect to these characteristic...