USES
Medicinal, Pharmaceutical, and Cosmetic.
Used in cough syrups and similar preparations
as an alternative to ipecac, being particularly
popular in the British Commonwealth
countries.
Dietary Supplements/Health Foods. Sel-
dom seen on the American market; common
coughsyrup ingredientin the United Kingdom
(WREN).
Traditional Medicine. Used by natives in
South America as an expectorant for alleviat-
ing coughs.^1 Among related species, the bark
ofG. trichilioidesL. is used in Amazonian
Brazil as an abortifacient, purgative, febri-
fuge, astringent, and anthelmintic. The bark
ofG. spicifloraJuss. is used in Brazilian folk
medicine to treat dermatoses, hydropsy, and
syphilis).
COMMERCIAL PREPARATIONS
Crude and extracts; the bark and fluid extract
were formerly official in N. F. Strengths (see
glossary) of extracts are expressed in weight-
to-weight ratios.
REFERENCE
See the General References forEVANS;GOSSELIN;GRIEVE;MARTINDALE;MCGUFFIN1&2;YOUNGKEN.
- E. B. Ritchie and J. W. Steel,Planta Med.,
14 , 247 (1966).
COCOA (CACAO)
Source: Theobroma cacaoL. subsp.cacao
(Family Sterculiaceae or Byttneriaceae).
Common/vernacular names:Theobroma.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Evergreen tree with leathery oblong leaves,
about 8 m high; fruits are berries borne direct-
ly on trunk and branches, with seeds within a
mucilaginous pulp. Parts used are the seeds,
which are commonly called cacao or cocoa
beans. Cacao is generally used to describe the
crude materials (e.g., cacao tree and cacao
beans), while cocoa is used to describe the
processed products. However, it is increa-
singly common to use the term cocoa for both
crude and processed products, and thus cocoa
tree, cocoa beans, cocoa powder, cocoa butter,
and so on.1,2
There are three varieties of cacao: foras-
tero, criollo, and trinitario. Forastero accounts
for more than 90% of the world’s usage and is
produced primarily in West African countries
(e.g., Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and the
Ivory Coast), while the criollo variety is pro-
duced in Venezuela and Central America, as
well as Papua New Guinea, Java, and Samoa.
Trinitario is believed to be a hybrid of the other
two varieties and is produced in Venezuela,
Trinidad, Sri Lanka, and other countries.
Both criollo and trinitario cacao are consid-
ered to have better flavor qualities than for-
astero cacao. Thus, criollo is blended with
forastero to improve the flavor of forastero in
the manufacture of cocoa and, like trinitario,
is also used in certain high-quality eating
chocolates.^1
Three main types of ingredients are pro-
duced from cacao seeds: cocoa powder, cocoa
butter, and cocoa extracts. For the manufac-
ture of these products, the cacao beans are first
cured by fermentation and drying, during
216 Cocoa (cacao)
