Dark chocolate and other cocoa products are popular in the population as a whole, but their overall health benefit remains controversial. Observations from the Kuna Indian population have shown an impressive cardiovascular health benefit from cocoa. For various reasons, this benefit has not been as robust as in other populations. Additionally, several mechanisms have been proposed that might co...

A study was carried out to determine the correlation between lipase activity in cocoa beans and the presence of free fatty acids which could affect the aroma and flavour of cocoa. Lipase activity fell from 0.46 to 0.15 ~mol/min/mg protein during six days of fermentation. Changes in the pH from 6.6 to 5.1 in the cotyledon and the increase in temperature seems to have contributed to the decrease ...

Chocolate is a product processed from cocoa rich in flavonoids, antioxidant compounds, and bioactive ingredients that have been associated with both its healthy and sensory properties. Chocolate production consists of a multistep process which, starting from cocoa beans, involves fermentation, drying, roasting, nib grinding and refining, conching, and tempering. During cocoa processing, the nat...

SCOPE Cocoa and (-)-epicatechin (EC), a main cocoa flavanol, have been suggested to exert beneficial effects in diabetes, but the mechanism for their insulin-like effects remains unknown. In this study, the modulation of insulin signalling by EC and a cocoa phenolic extract (CPE) on hepatic HepG2 cells was investigated by analysing key proteins of the insulin pathways, namely insulin receptor, ...

Recent studies show that ingestion of flavanol-rich cocoa powder provokes increased endothelial production of nitric oxide - an effect likely mediated by epicatchin - and thus may have considerable potential for promoting vascular health. The Kuna Indians of Panama, who regularly consume large amounts of flavanol-rich cocoa, are virtually free of hypertension and stroke, even though they salt t...

Cocoa and cocoa products have received much attention due to their significant polyphenol contents. Cocoa and cocoa products, namely cocoa liquor, cocoa powder and chocolates (milk and dark chocolates) may present varied polyphenol contents and possess different levels of antioxidant potentials. For the past ten years, at least 28 human studies have been conducted utilizing one of these cocoa p...

Accepted: 08/03/2014 Abstract Cocoa butter (CB) is the byproduct of cocoa bean processing industry and is obtained from the mature bean from the Theobroma cacao plant. It is an important ingredient in the chocolate and other confectionery industries. It's valued for its unique physicochemical properties which is given by its peculiar fatty acid composition. The major triacylglycerols (TAG) pres...

Intensive cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s leading producer, has grown at expense of forest cover. To reverse this trend, country adopted a “zero deforestation” agricultural policy and committed to rehabilitating its cover through planting high-value tree species landscapes using participatory approach. However, little is known regarding factors influencing farmers’ introduction l...

Cocoa beans (Theobroma cacao) are processed into cocoa beverage through fermentation, drying, roasting and grounding of the seed to powder. The mycological quality of 39 samples of different brand of these cocoa – based beverage referred to as ‘eruku oshodi’ collected from 3 different markets in south – west Nigeria was determined by serial dilution using the pour plate method on Potato Dextros...