The site environmental parameters and the bean quality of the criollo variety of Theobroma cacao L. (Cacao) in the Philippines

• Main Authors: Belo, Lea Marielle M., Navarro, Eireen B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Cacao > Philippines; Beans; Biochemistry; Theobroma > Philippines; Biology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/5687
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Philippines, with its agriculturally rich and environmentally diverse lands is a suitable producer of the Theobroma cacao L. beans. The main purpose of this study is to determine whether the biochemical properties of the bean samples from select cacao plantations in the Philippines is affected by the site environmental conditions by observing the relationship of the trends for both biochemical and environmental parameters. Cacao pods from Romblon, Kablon in South Cotabato, Tugbok, Lacson, and Malabog in Davao del Sur, Quezon Province, and Agoncillo in Batangas were provided to the researchers by local cacao producers. These pods were subjected to morphological analysis to confirm its identity before being subjected to extraction using dichloromethane (DCM) to determine three select biochemical properties: caffeine, theobromine, and chlorogenic acid (CGA). The environmental parameters: temperature and precipitation for the past 30 years were obtained from PhilGIS and QGIS. It was found that there was a significant difference with all three biochemical parameters and amount of annual precipitation across sites. The results of this study indicated that the nature of planting material served more as the determinant of biochemical composition of the collected Criollo beans than environmental parameters.