Theobroma cacao is composed of numerous compounds, such as poliphenols and metilxanthines, that offer a wide range of health benefits, highlighting its cardiovascular effect or that they are central nervous system stimulants. Among these, theobromine, caffeine and epicatechin are the most prominent. It is also important to mention tetramethylpirazine, which contributes to cocoa characteristic aroma. Nowadays, a method of analysis known as “Metabolomics” is being used to study these metabolites. This type of analysis involves a quantitative study of the possible metabolites that can be found, followed by a statistical analysis that determine how various treatments, applied to the samples, affects them. Cocoa recollected from Tafo-Akim area, in the eastern region of Ghana, in 2022 and 2023, was stored for different days (0, 3 and 7 days) and roasted at different temperatures (0, 120, 130, 140 and 150 ºC). The subsequent procedure undertaken was the separation of the different metabolites by HPLC-QTOF, which is a chromatographic technique. For the identification and abstention of the different abundances of the metabolites, “MassHunter Qualitative Analysis software versión B.07.00 (Agilent Technologies; Santa Clara, CA)” and “MassHunter Profinder software versión B.10.00 (Agilent Technologies; Santa Clara, CA)” were employed. Thanks to “MetaboAnalyst 6.0” [12], open source software, it was possible to study the differences between samples due to these treatments using ANOVA, PCA, PLS-DA, Heatmap and correlation analysis.

Memoria final TFG - Grado de Química (UAM) / ICTAN-CSIC.

Peer reviewed