Abstract

GRAZIANI DE FARINAS, Lucía; ORTIZ DE BERTORELLI, Ligia  and  PARRA, Pablo. Chemical characteristcs of seeds of different types of cocoa from the locality of Cumboto, aragua. Agronomía Trop. [online]. 2003, vol.53, n.2, pp.133-144. ISSN 0002-192X.

Summary With the purpose of determining chemical characteristics of cocoa seed from the area of Cumboto, Aragua State, cotyledons and seed coat + puip were analyzed from La Isleta, La Vega de Santa Cruz and El Paraíso plots of criollo, forastero amazonico and trinitaria cocoas, using a complete randomized desing. Resuits revealed that the cotyledon presentes 49,52-52,24% fat; 35,8-36,87% of humidity; 13,59-13,97% proteins; 7,62-8,07% total sugars; 3,59-3,67% of ashes; 2,90-3,24% reducing sugars; 0,68-0,80% tannins; 0,31-0,35% total acidity and pH of 6,35-6,39 and seed coat + pulp 78,00-80,02% humidity; 35,99-46,04% total sugars; 17,30-19,14% reducing sugars; 12,47-14,15 °Brix; 4,27-4,31% proteins; 3,39-3,41% total acidity; 0,84% tannins and pH of 3,45-3,56. Values obtained did not differ between the three cocoa types, with the exception of the cotyledon's fat which presentes their lowest value in the forastero and their highest value in the trinitaria as w.ell as humidity and total sugars of the seed coat + pulp, which presented the lowest percentage in the trinitaria. Similarities in characteristics between the plots were also observed, in the cotyledon the only differences were in fat (P>0,05) of the cocoa from La Isleta (49.34%), proteins from El Paraiso (12.78%) that were lowest and reducing sugars the La Isleta (3.39%) with the highest value. In the seed coat + pulp differences oecurred in the pH that was superior in El Paraiso (3.71) and total acidity of La Isleta (3.85%) that was bigger than the one of El Paraiso (2.91&). In conclusion, cocoas of the three plots from Cumboto, showed similar chemical characteristics, observing that materials from the area are not pure, but are hybridized and that most characteristics have not heen significantly affected by plot handling and locality. Therefore, it may be that chemical characteristics evaluated, except fat content, are not good indictors for detecting differences between cocoa types.

Keywords : Theobroma cacao L; chemical composition; fresh grain..