Abstract—Cocoa beans are rich in a number of beneficial bioactive compounds that are good for health. However, they have not been exploited to their fullest to produce high quality extract containing stable bioactive compound. The main objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the different solvent used for extraction on yield of cocoa butter extracts, oxidative value, phytosterols content and antioxidant content of Malaysia cocoa beans. The cocoa beans were subjected to different types of solvents; Hexane (HE), Petroleum ether (PE), 2-propanol (PR), Ethanol (ET). Cocoa butter extracted from HE has significantly (p<0.05) high yield of extract; 43.24% and lower oxidative content; PV (1.46 meqO2/kg) and AV (1.57 mg KOH/g oil). Whereas, the phytosterols and antioxidant value was significantly (p<0.05) higher in ET (4974 mg/100 g of extract, DPPH; 64.87% and TPC; 22.38 mg GAE/100 g of extract). This study is important to enhance the quality of cocoa butter extracts. 
 

Index Terms—cocoa beans, hexane, petroleum ether, 2-propanol, ethanol, phytosterols, antioxidant assay

Cite: Norhayati Hussain and Roiaini Mohamad, "Effect of Different Solvents on Phytosterols and Antioxidant Activity of Cocoa Beans," International Journal of Food Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 18-22, June 2015. doi: 10.18178/ijfe.1.1.18-22