Abstract The bioactivity of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) fruit including its beans has been extensively investigated, while the cocoa pod husk has rarely been reported. Herein, the cytotoxic activity of the n-hexane extract of the cocoa pod was investigated using Brine Shrimp Lethality Test (BSLT) method and resulted in LC50 of 192.75 ppm. The n-hexane extract was also fractionated by employing a gravity column chromatography and stationary phase of the n-hexane and ethyl acetate (gradient elution). Nine combined fractions were obtained for Theobroma cacao hexane (TCH) 1 – 9 at various n-hexane and ethyl acetate ratio which demonstrated strong cytotoxic activity with relativly low LC50 between 0.29 − 2.37 ppm. Based on phytochemical analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, the TCH 5 solution has been identified to contain several compounds that act as cytotoxic agents such as eucalyptol, naphthalene, eugenol, and D-limonene.

中文翻译：

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可可豆壳 (Theobroma cacao L.) 正己烷提取物的化学成分和细胞毒活性

摘要 可可（Theobroma cacao L.）果实包括可可豆的生物活性已被广泛研究，而可可豆壳鲜见报道。在本文中，使用盐水虾致死率测试 (BSLT) 方法研究了可可豆荚的正己烷提取物的细胞毒活性，结果 LC50 为 192.75 ppm。正己烷提取物也通过使用正己烷和乙酸乙酯的重力柱色谱和固定相（梯度洗脱）进行分馏。在不同的正己烷和乙酸乙酯比例下，可可可可可可 (TCH) 1 – 9 获得了九个组合级分，显示出强烈的细胞毒活性，LC50 相对较低，介于 0.29 - 2.37 ppm 之间。基于使用气相色谱-质谱法的植物化学分析，