Cocobean Tissue Culture: Lipid Composition

Antioxidant activity and polyphenol and procyanidin contents of selected commercially available cocoa-containing and chocolate products in the United States.
Miller KB, Stuart DA, Smith NL, Lee CY,McHale NL, Flanagan JA, Ou B, Hurst WJ.
Source
The Hershey Company, P.O. Box 805, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033-0805, USA.

In the United States, commercially available foods, including cocoa andchocolate, are being marketed with statements referring to the level of antioxidant activity and polyphenols. For cocoa-containing foods, there has been no comprehensive survey of the content of theseand other chemistries. A survey of cocoa and chocolate-containing products marketed in the United States was conducted to determine antioxidant activity and polyphenol and procyanidin contents.Commercially available samples consisted of the top market share products in each of the following six categories: natural cocoa, unsweetened baking chocolate, dark chocolate, semisweet baking chips, milkchocolate, and chocolate syrup. Composite samples were characterized using four different methods: oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), vitamin C equivalence antioxidant capacity (VCEAC), totalpolyphenols, and procyanidins. All composite lots were further characterized for percent nonfat cocoa solids (NFCS) and percent fat. Natural cocoas had the highest levels of antioxidant activities,total polyphenols, and procyanidins followed by baking chocolates, dark chocolates and baking chips, and finally milk chocolate and syrups. The results showed a strong linear correlation between NFCS andORAC (R (2) = 0.9849), total polyphenols (R (2) = 0.9793), and procyanidins (R (2) = 0.946), respectively. On the basis of principal component analysis, 81.4% of the sample set was associated withNFCS, antioxidant activity, total polyphenols, and procyanidins. The results indicated that, regardless of the product category, NFCS were the primary factor contributing to the level of cocoa...