Mirids are the primary pests affecting cocoa production in Africa, but no genetic studies have been conducted on these insects. Here we report the isolation and characterization of 12 polymorphic microsatellite loci for Sahlbergella singularis. A microsatellite-enriched genomic DNA library was developed and screened to identify marker loci. Twelve polymorphic loci were identified by screening 2...

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is the main mycotoxin occurring in cocoa. A study was conducted in Cameroon to assess how filamentous fungi and toxigenesis were affected by the type of cocoa post-harvest treatment (boxes or heaps). The filamentous fungi isolated were almost identical when fermentation was carried out in boxes or heaps, with the presence of abundant black Aspergillus filamentous fungi: A. ni...

The cocoa sector in Nigeria has experienced decline production, yield, exports coupled with its inability to attain global standards and targets and, gradual loss of competitiveness at the world market. Trade liberalization was government’s panacea sector’s problem although, remains an issue since liberalization. Therefore, relationship between trade policy Nigeria’s examined this study using d...

Man's oldest fungicide has probably long functioned in this role in plants, as a natural component of induced antifungal defence. Elemental sulphur (S(0)) is the only inorganic phytoalexin and the only phytoalexin produced by so many different taxa. S(0) (detected by GC-MS as (32)S(8)) is produced in representative species of Sterculiaceae (cocoa), Solanaceae (tomato, tobacco), Malvaceae (cotto...

Flavanol-rich cocoa products have been reported to lower blood pressure. It has been suggested that theobromine is partially responsible for this effect. We tested whether consumption of flavanol-rich cocoa drinks with natural or added theobromine could lower peripheral and central blood pressure. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled 3-period crossover trial we assigned 42 healthy individuals ...

BACKGROUND The consumption of dietary antioxidants is considered to be a good strategy against photo-aging. However, the results of previous clinical trials that investigated the effects of oral consumption of high-flavanol cocoa products on skin photo-aging have been contradictory. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate whether high-flavanol cocoa supplementation would improve th...

Excessive peroxidation of biomembranes is thought to contribute to the initiation and progression of numerous degenerative diseases. The present study examined the inhibitory effects of a cocoa extract, individual cocoa flavanols (-)-epicatechin and (+)-catechin, and procyanidin oligomers (dimer to decamer) isolated from cocoa on rat erythrocyte hemolysis. In vitro, the flavanols and the procya...

The purpose of this research was to produce cocoa butter equivalent from the blend of mango seed almond fat (MAF) from “Keaw” variety mango kernels and palm oil mid-fraction (POMF). Seven MAF-POMF blends with different proportions (100/0, 90/10, 80/20, 70/30, 60/40, 50/50 and 0/100 (%wt) of MAF to POMF) including cocoa butter were characterized using various techniques. Fatty acid composition w...

Application of a comparative aroma extraction dilution analysis on unroasted and roasted Criollo cocoa beans revealed 42 aroma compounds in the flavor dilution (FD) factor range of 1-4096 for the unroasted and 4-8192 for the roasted cocoa beans. While the same compounds were present in the unroasted and roasted cocoa beans, respectively, these clearly differed in their intensity. For example, 2...