Copyright (c) 2022 Revista de Investigación Agraria y Ambiental
Evaluation of the content of total phenols and antioxidant capacity of ethanolic extracts of cocoa shell (Theobroma cacao L.)
Contextualization: The cocoa fruit (Theobroma cacao L), is composed of seeds (main object of interest for producers), placenta and shell (agro-industrial waste) with unknown or wasted properties by the farmer, which is why they are discarded in productive environments, causing various problems.
This has led to the development of research on the knowledge of compounds with functional characteristics, mainly the cocoa shell as it is the largest post-harvest residue. The present investigation is evidence of total phenol content and antioxidant capacity present in these residues.
Knowledge gap: Ignorance of the properties of the residual cocoa shell and with it, the extraction methodologies of these compounds, causes an inadequate handling of approximately 80% of the cocoa fruit, becoming the origin of problems that affect the production, by its deposited on the ground.
Purpose of the study: To evaluate the content of total phenols and antioxidant capacity of ethanolic extracts of cocoa fruit shells (Theobroma cacao L.) from the department of Huila.
Methodology: Cocoa fruits were collected from the municipalities of Elías, Oporapa and Timana, located in the south of the department of Huila, Colombia; They were taken to the biotechnology laboratory of the Centro de Gestion y Desarrollo Sustainable Surcolombiano- Yamboró headquarters and were physically characterized. Then, the fruit peel was removed, it was extracted at different concentrations of solvents and the total phenols were quantified by the Folín & Ciocalteu method and antioxidants by the DPPH method to be converted to the inhibition coefficient (IC50).
Results and conclusions: The fruit shells resulted in an average of 82.95% of the total weight of the cocoa fruit taken from the 3 municipalities. The content of total phenols varied between 129.91 and 42.62 mg EAG / g. The antioxidant capacity against the DPPH radical varied with respect to the IC50 from 4.92 to 12.32 mg/mL. There was a relationship between the content of total phenols and antioxidant capacity depending on the method of extraction, quantification and analysis thereof.
Copyright (c) 2022 Revista de Investigación Agraria y Ambiental
