The mucilagous pulp surrounding the cocoa bean is rich in sugar which serves as the substrate for microbial fermentation [3]. We observed that sugary compounds of the pulp mainly composed of glucose, fructose, and sucrose; and their initial concentrations (before the fermentation) were consecutively 20.3 mg glucose/g, 22.2 mg fructose/g, and 6.1 mg sucrose /g (Fig. 2). Besides we also measured citric acid, that was reported to be an important component of mucilage [2].
The addition of LAB starter to the cocoa bean fermentation increased the sugar consumption rate such that faster decrease in glucose and fructose were observed in the fermentation with LAB starter addition (Fig. 2a-b). The final concentation of glucose and fructose in the fermentation with LAB starter addition were found to be successively 64% and 46% of those in the standard fermentations.
No significant difference was observed in the sucrose dynamics profile of the standard fermentation and the