Authors: Samuel Yap Kian Chee
Cocoa fresh beans aqueous extract shows high free radicals scavenging capability from various studies based on 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. Studies also showed that cocoa fresh beans aqueous extract contains few compounds which were believed contributing to the free radicals scavenging property. Nevertheless, report on
which compounds or fractions from this cocoa fresh bean extract appear to be major sources in the free radicals scavenging capability is limited.
Cocoa fresh beans were extracted by water incubation at 80oC for 15 minutes. The extract was fractioned using preparative chromatography system fixed with C18 (21.2 x 150mm) column and diode array detector at 280nm wavelength. Each fractions were dried under nitrogen stream at 80oC and reconstituted with 2ml distilled water.
Free radicals scavenging capability of the extract and its fractions were determined based on 0.06 mM DPPH solution.
Results showed that the cocoa fresh beans extract contains four prominent fractions as detected and isolated by Preparative liquid chromatography, namely fraction 1 to fraction 4. From this four fractions, only fraction 1 and fraction 2 showed positive result in free radicals scavenging capability. Fraction 1 and fraction 2 were identified as (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin respectively based on their retention time and mass spectrum.
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