Effect of Different Edaphic Crop Conditions on the Free Amino Acid Profile of PH-16 Dry Cacao Beans

Quintino Reis De Araujo,Guilherme Amorim Homem De Abreu Loureiro,Stephane Sacramento De Almeida,Dario Ahnert,Virupax Chanabasappa Baligar,Douglas Steinmacher,Cid Edson Mendonça Póvoas

doi:10.3390/agronomy11081637

Quintino Reis De Araujo, Guilherme Amorim Homem De Abreu Loureiro + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11081637

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Abstract

Free amino acids in cacao beans are important precursors to the aroma and flavor of chocolate. In this research, we used inferential and explanatory statistical techniques to verify the effect of different edaphic crop conditions on the free amino acid profile of PH-16 dry cacao beans. The decreasing order of free amino acids in PH-16 dry cacao beans is leucine, phenylalanine, glutamic acid, alanine, asparagine, tyrosine, gamma-aminobutyric acid, valine, isoleucine, glutamine, lysine, aspartic acid, serine, tryptophan, threonine, glycine. With the exception of lysine, no other free amino acid showed a significant difference between means of different edaphic conditions under the ANOVA F-test. The hydrophobic free amino acids provided the largest contribution to the explained variance with 58.01% of the first dimension of the principal component analysis. Glutamic acid stands out in the second dimension with 13.09%. Due to the stability of the biochemical profile of free amino acids in this clonal variety, it is recommended that cacao producers consider the genotype as the primary source of variation in the quality of cacao beans and ultimately the chocolate to be produced.

Highlights

Published: 17 August 2021The amino acid profile of cacao beans is one of the most important biochemical characteristics related to the cacao quality [1,2,3,4], mainly because of its direct influence on the taste and aroma of the by-products of the processed beans, such as chocolate [3,5,6,7]
The most common amino acids found in cacao beans are: aspartic acid, asparagine, glutamine, glutamic acid, alanine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, valine, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), glycine, lysine, serine, threonine [6,7,9,10] and, in cacao science are classified into acidic, hydrophobic and other [7,10,11,12]
The environmental safety function did not correlate with the Soil Quality Index (SQI) (r = 0.05) but, on the other hand, the available water (r = 0.68), root growth (r = 0.88) and mineral nutrition of plant (r = 0.77) functions are strongly associated with the SQI scores (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Published: 17 August 2021The amino acid profile of cacao beans is one of the most important biochemical characteristics related to the cacao quality [1,2,3,4], mainly because of its direct influence on the taste and aroma of the by-products of the processed beans, such as chocolate [3,5,6,7]. The amino acid profile in cacao beans is influenced by local or regional crop conditions, in addition to the contribution of fermentation and drying processes [7]. The conditions of growth and fermentation of cacao may interfere with the average weight of the beans, and polyphenols and amino acid concentrations [8]. In Bahia, Brazil, in the same edaphoclimatic conditions and post-harvest processing, the contents and profile of amino acids and bioactive amines differ in relation to the clonal varieties of cacao, resulting in products with different nutritional, functional, safety and sensory attributes [3]. The effect of multiple edaphic crop conditions, on the content and nature of amino acids of the cacao beans of the genetic varieties reported, remains unknown. The Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations

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