Factors affecting the biochemical properties of non-criollo from the species Theobroma cacao L. (Cacao) in the Philippines

• Main Authors: Estrada, Ashley Camille D., Flores, Franz Diether R.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Cacao > Philippines; Theobroma > Philippines; Biology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/5689
• Institution: De La Salle University

Theobroma cacao L. or cacao is widely cultivated in some parts of the Philippines. It has several requirements for planting cacao and obtaining good quality and high yield. According to a study (Aprotosoaie et al. 2015) quality of cacao could be affected by various factors such as genotype, growing conditions, and types of bean processing. The study will provide information on some of these factors such as type of variety, location and environmental factors which could affect the biochemical properties of cacao in the Philippines. It will determine the correlation of the environmental parameters of a location such as temperature and precipitation with biochemical constituents, if significant difference was observed among locations. It could contribute to the research of which type of environment should cacao be cultivated to obtain desired biochemical characteristics. The research also aims to classify the cacao variety and compare it with the identification of farmers to determine if they know which variety they are cultivating. The experiment was conducted first by classifying 24 cacao samples from eight locations into two: Criollo and non-Criollo based on the farmers identification. This study will focus only on the nine samples classified as of non-Criollo species. For laboratory identification, pods with purple and tinted beans were classified as non- Criollo. Results showed that the farmers identification on the nine samples matches that of the laboratory identification. The biochemical parameters namely, caffeine theobromine and chlorogenic acid were quantified through solvent extraction and UV-Vis Spectrophotometry. Based on the results, there is no significant difference between two different bean colors and on theobromine across location. However, a significant difference was recorded in the caffeine and chlorogenic acid across location and in the two environmental parameters. Therefore, the differences in the biochemical constituents may not be based on the color of the beans. Insignificant difference in theobromine but significant difference on caffeine and theobromine could be a characteristic of the collected non-Criollo. Temperature and precipitation also suggest that environment could affect the biochemical constituents.