BACKGROUND AND AIMS Cocoa flavanols are recognised by their favourable antioxidant and vascular effects. This study investigates the influence on health of the daily consumption of ready-to-eat meals supplemented with cocoa extract within a hypocaloric diet, on middle-aged overweight/obese subjects. METHODS AND RESULTS Fifty healthy male and female middle-aged volunteers [57.26 ± 5.24 years a...

Fe deficiency is a public-health problem worldwide, and effective measures for preventing Fe deficiency are needed. The aim of the present study was to determine the bioavailability of Fe in cocoa using the Hb regeneration efficiency (HRE) method. Thirty-five F344/N male weanling rats were fed a low-Fe diet for 4 weeks to deplete body Fe stores. Then, four groups of seven animals each were repl...

Three types of Cocoa tea, green, oolong, and black, were prepared from fresh young leaves of Camellia ptilophylla. Their aroma characteristics were compared by a sensory evaluation with corresponding traditional tea samples made from C. sinensis. The aroma profile of Cocoa green tea was quite different from that of traditional green tea, but fermented Cocoa oolong tea and black tea showed aroma...

A diet containing 10% cocoa, a rich source of polyphenols and fibre, is able to modify intestinal immune status as well as microbiota composition. The present study was aimed at investigating whether cocoa flavonoid content is uniquely responsible for these modulatory effects of cocoa, and to establish whether these effects depend on the rat strain. To this end, 3-week-old Wistar and Brown Norw...

The effects of cocoa feeding against N-nitrosodiethylamine (DEN)-induced liver injury were studied in rats. Animals were divided into five groups. Groups 1 and 2 were fed with standard and cocoa-diet, respectively. Groups 3 and 4 were injected with DEN at 2 and 4 weeks, and fed with standard and cocoa-diet, respectively. Group 5 was treated with DEN, received the standard diet for 4 weeks and t...

Cocoa beans are rich in a number of beneficial bioactive compounds that are good for health. However, they have not been exploited to their fullest to produce high quality extract containing stable bioactive compound. The main objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the different solvent used for extraction on yield of cocoa butter extracts, oxidative value, phytosterols c...

Cocoa, a product consumed since 600 BC, is now a subject of increasing interest because of its antioxidant properties, which are mainly attributed to the content of flavonoids such as ( - )-epicatechin, catechin and procyanidins. Moreover, recent findings suggest a regulatory effect of cocoa on the immune cells implicated in innate and acquired immunity. Cocoa exerts regulatory activity on the ...

Several recent reports have been published indicating that the antioxidant activity of olive oil and tea leaves is not stable over product shelf lives of about one year. We have measured the antioxidant activity, total polyphenols, flavan-3-ols monomers, and procyanidin levels in milk and dark chocolate, in cocoa powder, and in cocoa beans. Results show that for the cocoa products studied, anti...