Cocoa bean fermentation is an important postharvest process that develops aroma and processing properties. Although the cocoa fermentation is of high complexly, farmers are employing empirical methods to determine the fermentation degree of cocoa. Researchers, on the other hand, are using expensive equipment such as high‐performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry to study cocoa fermentation. In this study, machine learning based electronic nose system, a fast measuring and affordable method, was developed to determine the fermentation degree of cocoa beans. Six machine‐learning methods (bootstrap forest, boosted tree, decision tree, artificial neural network (ANN), naïve Bayes, and k‐nearest neighbors) were conducted to classify the fermentation time of cocoa beans. Bootstrap forest algorithm achieved a misclassification rate as low as 9.4%. ANN and boosted tree achieved 12.8 and 13.6% misclassification rate respectively. However, other methods failed to do classification for cocoa beans.
Practical applications
The electronic nose system can be used by cocoa farmers to monitor cocoa fermentation and ensure the quality of cocoa beans. The method is relatively inexpensive and easy to operate.
IntroductionThis prospective pharmacodynamic nutraceutical study assessed the effect of a 1-week trial of 30 g/day of 65% cocoa (dark chocolate) (Theobroma cacao L.) consumption intervention on platelet reactivity.MethodsPatients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) (n=20) who were on maintenance dual antiplatelet therapy of aspirin (ASA) 81 mg/day and clopidogrel 75 mg/day were recruited. Platelet function was evaluated with the VerifyNow P2Y12 reaction unit (PRU) and aspirin reaction unit (ARU) assays (Werfen, Bedford, Massachusetts, USA) and assessed prior to initiation of and after a 1-week trial of 30 g/day of 65% cocoa consumption intervention. Results were compared with a paired t-test.ResultsCocoa augmented the inhibitory effect of clopidogrel, demonstrated by a reduction of 11.9% (95% CI 5.7% to 18.0%, p value 0.001), significantly decreasing the PRU by 26.85 (95% CI 12.22 to 41.48, p value 0.001). The inhibitory effect of ASA was not impacted by cocoa, reflected by a non-significant reduction in ARU of 17.65 (95% CI 21.00 to 56.3, p value 0.351). No patients experienced any serious adverse events.ConclusionsCocoa augmented the inhibitory effect of clopidogrel but not ASA. This nutraceutical study could be potentially informative and applicable for patients with stable CAD. Further long-term studies are required to confirm these exploratory findings.Trial registration numberNCT04554901.
Cocoa butterfat and cocoa powder are key economic products from the seeds of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao L.). In this study, 323 accessions (comprised mainly of Upper Amazon Forasteros and Refractarios) from the International Cocoa Genebank, Trinidad were characterized for one biochemical and five morphological seed-derived traits. The data were analysed using non-parametric statistics including correlation analysis to identify promising parental candidates for future cacao breeding programmes. The Upper Amazon Forastero group had the greatest proportion of accessions with high butterfat content in cotyledons, whereas Refractario and Trinitario groups tended to contain more accessions with high butterfat content per fruit. The correlation of butterfat content of cotyledons with the dry mass of cotyledons was inconsistent in significance and direction. However, consistent significant positive correlations between butterfat content per fruit, cotyledon size and dry mass of cotyledons were found. The results suggested that butterfat content is a likely trait for independent selection but that selection for increased cotyledon size could lead to the selection of genotypes for high butterfat yield. Several promising accessions exhibited favourable levels of multiple traits and MATINA 1/7, CRU 51, AM 2/91 [POU], CRU 133, EET 58 [ECU] and POUND 18/A [POU] could be recommended as good choices for parental stock in breeding programmes for improving cacao butterfat content.
The flavor attributes of cacao (Theobroma cacao) is becoming an important consideration in trade specifically for fine or flavor cocoa. In this market segment, flavor along with other physical attributes, not only contributes to the quality of a cocoa lot but also the price premium obtained. Past studies have shown evidence of pollen parent effects on yield, bean size, and pod characteristics, but its effect on flavor attributes is not clearly understood. An incomplete diallel mating design involving five cacao cultivars [West African Amelonado (WAA), Imperial College Selection (ICS) 1, Iquitos Mixed Calabacillo (IMC) 67, and two Trinidad Selected Hybrids (TSH) coded as CCL 200 and CCL 201] with widely differing flavor attributes were used to investigate the magnitude of female and male parent effects on key intrinsic flavor attributes. The seeds derived from pods arising from these pollinations were fermented, dried, and made into cocoa liquor according to standardized methods. Flavor evaluations were carried out by a trained sensory panel for nine flavor attributes with five repetitions and hidden flavor reference controls. The study was conducted over two cocoa crop years. The results failed to detect dominant xenia effects for important ancillary flavor attributes (i.e., cocoa flavor, acidity, fruitiness, and floral flavors), but showed significant female parent effects for cocoa and floral flavors. Small but inconsistent male parent effects were seen for astringency. Lack of xenia effect for the major flavor attributes implies that the flavor quality of cocoa beans is determined principally by the genotype of the female parent.
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