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.