Cocoa butter is extracted by squeezing ground cocoa beans. It is on this butter most confectionery chocolate products are made since it harmoniously complements these products in taste and composition. Cocoa butter can be used not only for desserts.
Cocoa butter has a solid structure and a pale yellow color. It can be used both for food and to make medical and cosmetic products based on it. Cocoa butter has an instrumental composition.
– Cocoa butter contains palmitic, linoleic, oleic, and stearic acids, beta-carotene, vitamins C, H, PP, and B, amino acids, calcium, sulfur, potassium, magnesium, selenium, zinc, copper and manganese, iron, iodine, phosphorus, sodium.
– Cocoa butter is a source of the amino acid tryptophan, which is involved in the production of serotonin, dopamine, and phenylethylamine – the hormones of happiness. That is why chocolate is a sure remedy for depressed bad mood, and fatigue.
– The oleic acid of cocoa butter helps restore and protect the walls of blood vessels, reduces cholesterol levels, and cleanses the blood. It also helps the skin to strengthen its protective functions.
– Palmitic acid promotes better absorption of nutrients by the body, and vitamin E increases collagen production and moisturizes the skin.
– Cocoa butter polyphenols reduce the release of immunoglobulin IgE, thereby reducing allergic reactions – asthma, skin rashes.
Cocoa butter is used in cosmetology for several reasons. First, it contains caffeine, methylxanthines, and tannins, which have a rejuvenating effect. And secondly, the high content of amino acids in cocoa butter does not allow the product to oxidize, and its shelf life increases.
A wide range of antioxidants that are part of cocoa butter helps the body protect itself from free radicals that are trying to cause irreparable damage to our health and youth and prevent cancer occurrence.
Cocoa butter is also used in medicine: it perfectly copes with burns, rashes, irritations. Also, this oil helps the discharge of mucus when coughing and has an antiviral effect.