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Bioactive Compounds from Theobroma cacao: Effect of Isolation and Safety Evaluation

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Abstract

Plants, including most food and feed plants, produce a broad range of bioactive chemical compounds. Among these compounds, polyphenols are reported to provide beneficial effects as anti-carcinogenic, anti-atherogenic, anti-inflammatory, immune modulating, anti-microbial, vasodilatory and analgesic. Cocoa (Theobroma cacao), a major, economically important, international crop, has been related to several nutritional benefits, which have been associated with the phenolic fraction. The main subclass of flavonoids found in cocoa is flavanols, particularly (epi)catechins monomers, and their oligomers, also known as procyanidins. In this study, these compounds were isolated by different methodologies as solid phase extraction (SPE), semi-preparative high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and membrane technologies to obtain different polyphenolic profiles by HPLC coupled to electrospray time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-TOF-MS) and to test their cytotoxicity. Finally, different polyphenolic profiles were collected, where the combination of both semi-preparative HPLC and SPE technologies provided the most purified fractions. Filtration with membranes and SPE provide extracts with different composition depending on the pore size of membranes and on the solvent, respectively. In addition, the results of toxicity assay indicated low levels in all fractions.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the project AGL2015-67995-C3-2-R (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation), as well as P11-CTS-7625 (Andalusian Regional Government Council of Innovation and Science). The European Social Fund (FSE) for the contract PTQ-13-06429.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Granada, c/Fuentenueva s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain

    María de la Luz Cádiz-Gurrea & Antonio Segura-Carretero

  2. Research and Development of Functional Food Centre (CIDAF), PTS Granada, Avda. del Conocimiento 37, Edificio BioRegion, 18016, Granada, Spain

    María de la Luz Cádiz-Gurrea & Antonio Segura-Carretero

  3. Advanced NMR Methods and Metal-based Catalysts, University of Almería, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120, Almería, Spain

    Ignacio Fernández de las Nieves & Luis Manuel Aguilera Saez

  4. Biomedical Research Unit. Medicine and Surgery Department, Rovira i Virgili University, 43201, Reus, Tarragona, Spain

    Salvador Fernández-Arroyo

  5. Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Unité 781, Université Paris Descartes-Sorbonne Paris Cité, Institut Imagine, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, 75015, Paris, France

    Laurence Legeai-Mallet

  6. Laboratoire d’Electrochimie et Environnement, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Sfax BP «1173» 3038, Université de Sfax, Sfax, Tunisie

    Mohamed Bouaziz

  7. Institut Supérieur de Biotechnologie de Sfax, Université de Sfax, BP «1175», 3038, Sfax, Tunisie

    Mohamed Bouaziz

Authors
  1. María de la Luz Cádiz-Gurrea
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  2. Ignacio Fernández de las Nieves
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  3. Luis Manuel Aguilera Saez
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  4. Salvador Fernández-Arroyo
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  5. Laurence Legeai-Mallet
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  6. Mohamed Bouaziz
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  7. Antonio Segura-Carretero
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Correspondence to María de la Luz Cádiz-Gurrea.

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de la Luz Cádiz-Gurrea, M., Fernández de las Nieves, I., Aguilera Saez, L.M. et al. Bioactive Compounds from Theobroma cacao: Effect of Isolation and Safety Evaluation. Plant Foods Hum Nutr 74, 40–46 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11130-018-0694-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11130-018-0694-x

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