Cocoa butter is a fatty substance with a yellow color and pleasant aroma. It is obtained from the hot compression of Theobroma Cacao, a plant mainly spread in South America. Its melting temperature is around 36 degrees. It is composed of several glycerides of oleic acids, stearic, linoleic, palmitic etc. in these percentages (1) :
Composition of polyunsaturated fatty acids 2.8% of the total:
- 2.7% linoleic acid
- Alpha linoleic acid 0.1 %
Composition of monounsaturated fatty acids 33% of the total
- Oleic acid 32.8%
Composition of saturated fatty acids 63.7%
- Stearic acid 35.7%
- Palmitic acid 26.7%
- Peanut acid - eycosanoic 1%
Phytochemical content
- Vanillic acid nm 791
- Tocoferoli ppm 246
- Vitamin K mg/100g 3.5
- total phenolic content in mg gallic acid/kg oil 8.3
- Ferulic acid isomer (nm) 456
- NaringeniniIsomer (nm) 162
- Isomer of 4-hydroxyphenylpropionic (nm) 522
It is used in the pharmaceutical (e.g. lip stick), cosmetics and confectionery fields, in the preparation of sweets and chocolate, however its use has been greatly reduced due to the difficulty of preservation and cost.
Particularly in chocolate, a European Directive puts the limit at 5%.
