pH-Dependency of the proteolytic formation of cocoa- and nutty-specific aroma precursors

Sensory evaluation of roasted cocoa not only revealed cocoa-specific but also more or less pronounced nutty-specific aroma notes. Essential precursors of the corresponding volatile compounds could be generated in vitro by proteolysis of the cocoa vicilin-class(7S) globulin using a mixture of cocoa aspartic protease and cocoa carboxypeptidase. Since both proteases have rather different pH optima (pH 3.5 and 5.5-6.0, respectively), we have investigated the pH-dependency of proteolysis of this protein substrate in the presence of both proteases, the liberation of free amino acids and the generated aroma potential. Our findings revealed that the precursors of the nutty aroma notes were generated at higher pH-values (pH 4.8-5.6) than the cocoa-specific precursor peptides (pH 4.4-5.2). Longer peptide fragments of the cocoa vicilin were formed by proteolysis at pH 5.2 than at pH 4.8. Furthermore, our findings indicated that cocoa-vicilin derived peptides are essential precursors of both the cocoa- and the nutty-specific aroma components.