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Planta Med 2021; 87(10/11): 841-849
DOI: 10.1055/a-1499-7829
Biological and Pharmacological Activity
Original Papers

Evaluation of Cocoa Bean Shell Antimicrobial Activity: A Tentative Assay Using a Metabolomic Approach for Active Compound Identification[ # ]

Olga Rojo-Poveda 
1   RD3 Department-Unit of Pharmacognosy, Bioanalysis and Drug Discovery, Faculty of Pharmacy, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
2   Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Turin, Grugliasco, Italy
,
Sofia Oliveira Ribeiro
1   RD3 Department-Unit of Pharmacognosy, Bioanalysis and Drug Discovery, Faculty of Pharmacy, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
,
Cèlia Anton-Sales
1   RD3 Department-Unit of Pharmacognosy, Bioanalysis and Drug Discovery, Faculty of Pharmacy, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
,
Flore Keymeulen
1   RD3 Department-Unit of Pharmacognosy, Bioanalysis and Drug Discovery, Faculty of Pharmacy, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
,
Letricia Barbosa-Pereira
2   Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Turin, Grugliasco, Italy
3   Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
,
Cédric Delporte
1   RD3 Department-Unit of Pharmacognosy, Bioanalysis and Drug Discovery, Faculty of Pharmacy, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
4   Analytical Platform of the Faculty of Pharmacy (APFP), Faculty of Pharmacy, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
,
Giuseppe Zeppa
2   Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Turin, Grugliasco, Italy
,
Caroline Stévigny
1   RD3 Department-Unit of Pharmacognosy, Bioanalysis and Drug Discovery, Faculty of Pharmacy, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
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Abstract

Cocoa bean shell is one of the main by-products of chocolate manufacturing and possesses several compounds with biofunctionalities. It can function as an antibacterial agent, and its action is mostly reported against Streptococcus mutans. However, only a few studies have investigated the cocoa bean shell compounds responsible for this activity. This study aimed to evaluate several extracts of cocoa bean shells from different geographical origins and cocoa varieties and estimate their antimicrobial properties against different fungal and bacterial strains by determining their minimal inhibitory concentration. The results demonstrated antimicrobial activity of cocoa bean shell against one of the tested strains, S. mutans. Cocoa bean shell extracts were further analysed via LC-HRMS for untargeted metabolomic analysis. LC-HRMS data were analysed (preprocessing and statistical analyses) using the Workflow4Metabolomics platform. The latter enabled us to identify possible compounds responsible for the detected antimicrobial activity by comparing the more and less active extracts. Active extracts were not the most abundant in polyphenols but contained higher concentrations of two metabolites. After tentative annotation of these metabolites, one of them was identified and confirmed to be 7-methylxanthine. When tested alone, 7-methylxanthine did not display antibacterial activity. However, a possible cocktail effect due to the synergistic activity of this molecule along with other compounds in the cocoa bean shell extracts cannot be neglected. In conclusion, cocoa bean shell could be a functional ingredient with benefits for human health as it exhibited antibacterial activity against S. mutans. However, the antimicrobial mechanisms still need to be confirmed.

Key words

cocoa bean shell - Theobroma cacao - Malvaceae - antimicrobial activity - Streptococcus mutans - metabolomics

# Dedicated to Professor Arnold Vlietinck on the occasion of his 80th birthday.


Supporting Information

    MIC values (µg/mL) for all the tested microorganisms against the different antibiotics used as positive controls (n = 6) as well as supplementary information on the score plots for multivariate modelling using PCA or PLS-DA are available as Supporting Information.

  • Supporting Information


Publication History

Received: 29 December 2020

Accepted after revision: 23 April 2021

Article published online:
21 May 2021

© 2021. Thieme. All rights reserved.

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
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