Antioxidant Evaluation of Peruvian Cocoa Pastes

Two native Peruvian cocoa pastes of different origins were used: “Amazonas Peru” cocoa paste (APC) from the Amazonas Region (latitude/longitude −5.737422, −78.431114), and “Criollo de Montaña” cocoa paste (CMC) from the Junín Region (−11.335774, −74.533181). In addition, CCN-51 ordinary cocoa paste (OC) obtained from the Cusco Region (−12.510664, −73.834577) was used as control. The different content of polyphenols, flavonoids, methylxanthines and the antioxidant capacity of these three cocoa populations have already been reported [11 (link)]. From these cocoa pastes, three diets were made by mixing 90% of powdered AIN-93M (Envigo, Huntingdon, UK) with 10% of cocoa paste previously pulverized. The mixture was pelletized, dried (40 °C for 36 h), vacuum-packed and stored at 4 °C until used. A standard diet based on the AIN-93M diet (Envigo) was used as reference. The composition of the diets is detailed in Table 1.