Abstract
Peptides and amino acids generated during cocoa bean fermentation are known to be the most important precursors for the development of cocoa aroma. Although cocoa fermentation and aroma development have been extensively studied, the cocoa oligopeptide fraction is under-investigated. In particular, the identification of specific peptide sequences and the quantification of cocoa peptides are scarce in the literature. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of oligopeptides in fermented cocoa beans. Peptides were analysed by reversed phase LC/ESI-MS and LC/ESI-MS/MS, and the molecular masses of 44 different peptides were obtained by analysing the mass spectra associated with the most intense chromatographic peaks. Peptides were identified based on the exact molecular masses, mass fragmentation patterns and by comparison with vicilin and 21kDa cocoa seed protein sequences. Semi-quantitative data on peptide presence in fermented cocoa samples of different geographic origin, different fermentation levels and on roasted products were also provided.
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