Tree Genetics and Molecular Breeding 2025, Vol.15, No.5, 192-201 http://genbreedpublisher.com/index.php/tgmb 194 3.3 Environmental and postharvest factors affecting theobromine levels Environmental and processing conditions can also affect theobromine levels. Water stress can alter the accumulation of theobromine and related metabolites by regulating metabolic pathways (Boutchouang et al., 2024). During the fermentation process, the contents of methylxanthines such as theobromine and caffeine gradually decrease over time, and the variation range varies among different varieties (Figure 1) (Balcázar-Zumaeta et al., 2022; Cortez et al., 2023). Processes such as baking and drying can also affect the final content and distribution of theobromine (Figure 2) (Mladenović et al., 2018; Collazos-Escobar et al., 2024). Therefore, the environment and processing methods are important factors determining the metabolic characteristics of theobromine. Figure 1 Cocoa fermentation phases (Adopted from Balcázar-Zumaeta et al., 2022) Figure 2 Flow chart illustrating the experimental procedure used to determine mid-infrared spectra and theobromine/caffeine content of cocoa samples for obtaining the dataset (Adopted from Collazos-Escobar et al., 2024)
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