Evaluation of flavonoids and catechins of Venezuelan cocoa: spectroscopic characterization and quantification

Abstract

Polyphenols are compounds found in diverse vegetable sources and are used in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry. Flavonoids represent the most common and widely distributed group of vegetal phenols. Among this group, catechins have raised the interest of areas such as cosmetics and skin health. In this work, samples of fermented and dried cocoa from Canoabo’s region, were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-Visible spectroscopy and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This characterization was carried out in order to determine the content of polyphenols, flavonoids and more specifically - (-) epicatechin. Infrared and UV-Visible spectra analysis indicate presence of phenolic compounds as flavonoids. The cocoa alcoholic extract presented a polyphenols total concentration of 13.500,56 ± 0,89 mg AG/L, the amount of flavonoids in the concentrated extract was 7.792,2 ± 0,3 mg EC/L and 1.434,4 ± 0,6 mg EC/kg of (-)-epicatechin, which is present in 18% m/m of the total of flavonoids content. Surface tension measures of 1%v/v of mathanolic extract gave a value of 55,5 dyn/cm. Results suggest that the evaluated extract presents adequate species of flavonoids that could be incorporated in a cosmetic application product.