Antioxidant and anticancer potential of natural cocoa extract

The aim of this study was to investigate antioxidant and anticancer potentials of natural cocoa extracts. Antioxidant properties of the extracts were evaluated by DPPH assay, total phenolic content by Folin-Ciocalteau and reduced glutathione content by O-phthalaldehyde assays. Antiproliferative activity was also evaluated on leukaemia and prostate cancer cell lines using MTT assay. The hydroethanolic extracts of cocoa roots and beans and aqueous cocoa leaves showed high total antioxidant activities with the root extract having the strongest scavenging effect on DPPH and the highest total phenolics content. The hydroethanolic cocoa bean crude extract showed the highest anticancer activity against LNCaP cells, whiles the ethyl acetate fraction of hydroethanolic cocoa leaf exhibited the highest anticancer against PC3. Jurkat and PC3 cells had similar susceptibilities to the natural cocoa extracts. Thus, cocoa has antioxidant and anticancer activity, and the specific bioactive compounds responsible for these activities need to be elucidated in future research.