Resumen

GRAZIANI DE FARINAS, Lucía; ORTIZ DE BERTORELLI, Ligia; ALVAREZ, Naidely  y  TRUJILLO DE LEAL, América. Fermentación del cacao en dos diseños de cajas de madera. Agronomía Trop. [online]. 2003, vol.53, n.2, pp.175-188. ISSN 0002-192X.

Summary Pods of Criollo cocoa were harvested in the locality of Cuyagua, shelled 5 days after harvesting and fermented in square and rectangular wooden boxes with the purpose of comparing the effect of two designs on physical and chemical characteristics of grain. Duration of fermentation was 5 days and the grains were turned around at 24 and 48 hours after initiation of process. Temperature was measured daily and the index of fermentation, humidity, tannins, total acidity and pH of the pulp + testa and cotyledon of the grain in fermentation were determined at 0, 2, 4 and 5 days. Results revealed that design affected fermentation index, such that temperatures reached by cacao mass were higher when fermenting in the square boxes, with higher values of tannins but lower pH in the pulp + testa and in the cotyledon. Also, with both boxes the values obtained for temperature and index of fermentation revealed a good fermentation, however, such values were superior when using square type boxes, thus it could be considered as the most efficient design for the fermentation process of cocoa.

Palabras clave : Theobroma cacao L; physicals indexes; chemicals characteristics..