Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada, Av. Fuentenueva s/n, E-18071 Granada, Spain.
Functional Food Research and Development Center, Health Science Technological Park, Av. del Conocimiento s/n, E-18016 Granada, Spain.
Molecules. 2020 Jul 11;25(14):3177. doi: 10.3390/molecules25143177.
Peru is one of the main areas where there are large cocoa crops with special relevance to the economy of this country. In fact, cocoa is a major, economically important, international crop which has been linked to several benefits, such as anti-allergenic, anti-atherogenic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, anti-thrombotic, cardioprotective and vasodilatory properties, relating to its bioactive compound content. However, in cocoa industrial processing, several residues or wastes, which are commonly discarded generating a negative impact on the environment, are produced in large amounts. Some of the cocoa by-products, which go underutilized, could be a good source of bioactive compounds with high utility for the development of innovative products in nutraceutical, medical or pharmaceutical industries. For this reason, the aim of this study is to qualitatively determine the phytochemical composition of husk and bean extracts from different cocoa-growing areas and processes from Peru by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Furthermore, we aim to evaluate their phenolic and flavan-3-ol contents and antioxidant capacities for the purpose of highlighting the potential of cocoa by-products from these cultivars as functional ingredients. In total, 49 chemical compounds were detected in the analyzed extracts. Comparing both husks and beans, bean extracts were characterized by high content in flavonoids whereas husk extracts had a higher content of phenolic acids. The presence of these compounds together with the bioactivity results suggest that these matrices may be further studied for their revaluation in the development of high added-value products in nutraceutical, medical, and pharmaceutical industries.
秘鲁是主要的可可种植区之一，对该国经济具有重要意义。事实上，可可作为一种主要的、具有经济重要性的国际作物，具有多种益处，如抗过敏原、抗动脉粥样硬化、抗炎、抗菌、抗氧化、抗血栓、心脏保护和血管扩张作用，这与其生物活性化合物含量有关。然而，在可可工业加工过程中，会产生大量的残余物或废物，通常被丢弃，对环境造成负面影响。一些未充分利用的可可副产品可能是具有高利用价值的生物活性化合物的良好来源，可用于开发营养保健品、医疗或制药行业的创新产品。出于这个原因，本研究的目的是通过高效液相色谱-质谱联用技术定性确定来自秘鲁不同可可种植区和加工过程的外壳和豆提取物的植物化学成分。此外，我们旨在评估它们的酚类和黄烷-3-醇含量和抗氧化能力，以突出这些品种的可可副产物作为功能性成分的潜力。在分析的提取物中总共检测到 49 种化合物。比较外壳和豆，豆提取物的特点是黄酮类化合物含量高，而外壳提取物的酚酸含量较高。这些化合物的存在以及生物活性结果表明，这些基质可能会进一步研究，以重新评估其在营养保健品、医疗和制药行业开发高附加值产品的价值。
