abstract chocolate is derived from cocoa beans - the fruit of the cacao tree or theobroma cacao (the latin term: food of the gods). recent published articles demonstrate that the quality and quantity of the antioxidants in cocoa and chocolate are very high and their flavonoids are believed to reduce the number of free radicals in the body that contribute to medical problems, such as cardiovascu...

In-house cocoa flour RMs instead of CRMs were prepared and checked for its homogeneity and stability. Due to CRMs limited availability in terms of matrices of concern and high production cost when making in-house cocoa flour, RMs are alternatively used for daily quality control in the laboratory. The analysis method for reliable checking of homogeneity and stability of cadmium content in the in...

BACKGROUND: Spontaneous cocoa bean fermentation is characterised by a succession of microbial activities. Cocoa flavour precursors are developed during fermentation and drying of cocoa beans. Polyphenols and alkaloids contribute to astringency and bitterness of cocoa and chocolate. RESULTS: Population dynamics, metabolite target analyses, and chocolate production were performed for seven indepe...

Theobroma cacao-The Food of the Gods, provides the raw material for the multibillion dollar chocolate industry and is also the main source of income for about 6 million smallholders around the world. Additionally, cocoa beans have a number of other nonfood uses in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Specifically, the potential health benefits of cocoa have received increasing attention ...

The fermentation of cocoa pulp is one of the few remaining large-scale spontaneous microbial processes in today's food industry. The microbiota involved in cocoa pulp fermentations is complex and variable, which leads to inconsistent production efficiency and cocoa quality. Despite intensive research in the field, a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the microbiota is still lacking, especia...

Cocoa pulp fermentation is a spontaneous process during which the natural microbiota present at cocoa farms is allowed to ferment the pulp surrounding cocoa beans. Because such spontaneous fermentations are inconsistent and contribute to product variability, there is growing interest in a microbial starter culture that could be used to inoculate cocoa pulp fermentations. Previous studies have r...

coastline west of Caracas in the 17th century, cocoa groves then moved to the Barlovento region east of Caracas in the 18th century. Later still, in the 19th century, at a time when Ecuador had become the world's largest producer, a new pioneer front was consolidated on the north-eastern Paria peninsula. Since the mid-1930s, with the spectacular rise of cocoa production in other parts of the wo...

Cocoa and its flavonoids have potential anti-inflammatory properties in vitro and in acute inflammation models in vivo. The aim of the present study was to ascertain the effects of two cocoa-enriched diets on adjuvant arthritis (AA) in rats, considering not only clinical and biochemical inflammatory indices, but also antibody response and lymphocyte composition. Female Wistar rats were fed with...

Polyphenols-rich cocoa has many beneficial effects on human health, such as anti-inflammatory effects. Macrophages function as control switches of the immune system, maintaining the balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory activities. We investigated the hypothesis that cocoa polyphenol extract may affect macrophage proinflammatory phenotype M1 by favoring an alternative M2 anti-inflammatory ...

Pesticides are a significant component of the modern agricultural technology that has been widely adopted across the globe to control pests, diseases, weeds and other plant pathogens, in an effort to reduce or eliminate yield losses and maintain high product quality. Although pesticides are said to be toxic and exposes farmers to risk due to the hazardous effects of these chemicals, pesticide u...