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Methylxanthines and polyphenols from cocoa byproducts should be considered for their application in the development of functional ingredients for food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical formulations. Different cocoa byproducts were analyzed for their chemical contents, and skincare properties were measured by antioxidant assays and anti-skin aging activity. Musty cocoa beans (MC) and second-quality cocoa beans (SQ) extracts showed the highest polyphenol contents and antioxidant capacities. In the collagenase and elastase inhibition study, the highest effect was observed for the SQ extract with 86 inhibition and 36% inhibition, respectively. Among cocoa byproducts, the contents of catechin and epicatechin were higher in the SQ extract, with 18.15 mg/100 g of sample and 229.8 mg/100 g of sample, respectively. Cocoa bean shells (BS) constitute the main byproduct due to their methylxanthine content (1085 mg of theobromine and 267 mg of caffeine/100 g of sample). Using BS, various influencing factors in the extraction process were investigated by response surface methodology (RSM), before scaling up separations. The extraction process developed under optimized conditions allows us to obtain almost 2 g/min and 0.2 g/min of total methylxanthines and epicatechin, respectively. In this way, this work contributes to the sustainability and valorization of the cocoa production chain.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the levels of chemical markers in raw cacao beans in two clones (introduced and regional) in Colombia over several years. Multivariate statistical methods were used to analyze the flavanol monomers (epicatechin and catechin), flavanol oligomers (procyanidins) and methylxanthine alkaloids (caffeine and theobromine) of cocoa samples. The results identified genotype as the main factor contributing to cacao chemistry, although significant differences were not observed between universal and regional clones in PCA. The univariate analysis allowed us to establish that EET-96 had the highest contents of both flavanol monomers (13.12 ± 2.30 mg/g) and procyanidins (7.56 ± 4.59 mg/g). In addition, the geographic origin, the harvest conditions of each region and the year of harvest may contribute to major discrepancies between results. Turbo cocoa samples are notable for their higher flavanol monomer content, Chigorodó cocoa samples for the presence of both types of polyphenol (monomer and procyanidin contents) and the Northeast cocoa samples for the higher methylxanthine content. We hope that knowledge of the heterogeneity of the metabolites of interest in each clone will contribute to the generation of added value in the cocoa production chain and its sustainability.

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Objective: to identify the eating patterns of the adult population from Antioquia, Colombia, and their association with socioeconomic variables. Methods: a cross-sectional study was performed with a random sample of 1,394 adults aged 18 to 59 years, derived from the Antioquia Food and Nutritional Profile 2019 study. Food consumption was evaluated with a 24-hour consumption recall (R24h) and a second R24h on a non-consecutive day at 25% of the sample, food consumption was quantified in grams, and food patterns were established by factorial analysis by Principal Components with varimax orthogonal rotation. To verify the association between eating patterns and socioeconomic variables, Poisson regression was used for robust variance. Results: three eating patterns were defined that represent 28.1% of the variance: "Traditional" (9.8%), "Regional" (9.7%), and "Prudent" (8.6%). The first two were associated with demographic variables, such as gender, age, and ethnicity; while the latter was associated with socioeconomic variables such as schooling, family income, social security system, and food security classification. Conclusions: The findings of this study show that the diet of the population of the study, follows some references to food tradition, reflected in the Traditional and Regional patterns, while the Prudent pattern corresponds to the part of the population that has better socioeconomic conditions, and they probably follow it for health recommendation.