## 3 Results and Discussion
### Antioxidant Profile during Fermentation (SF and SC) in Cocoa Beans  
Tables 1 and 2 show the average values of the main phenolics responsible for the antioxidant profile in cocoa, which were subjected to multivariate analysis (k-means and PCA), as shown in Figures 4 and 5. The polyphenol content (TPC), regardless of the type of fermentation, decreased as the processing time elapsed, registering the lowest value in cocoa from Guadalupe (1.01 \(\pm\) 0.75 mg (GAE)/g in SF); this reduction in the results is within what is reported in the literature [4; 20], which is associated with polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, which generates enzymatic browning reactions and the oxidation of phenols diffused in cell fluids [62; 63]. It has been reported that within the first 48 h of fermentation, there was a higher level of TPC in cocoa beans (15.5 mg (GAE)/g in Copallin SF) since, in the first days of the process, polyphenols are stored in pigmented cells of the cotyledons [64; 65]. In addition, there was an increase in TPC at the end of fermentation, which according to [PERSON] et al. (2014), is not uniform; in our study, at the end of SC fermentation, the TPC content was higher than SF (Tables 1 and 2), similar to that reported by [PERSON] et al. [20], suggesting that lower levels of SF would be expected. On the other hand, the increase in TPC could be due to the release of bound phenolic compounds by _S. cerevisiae_[54]. The higher level of TPC in Copallin bean could be due to its origin, which is above 800 masl [66], but further studies are needed. [PERSON] et al. [31] indicate that the most abundant polyphenols are anthocyanins, which in our study are significantly affected (\(p\) < 0.05) by the fermentation time (Tables 1 and 2). These results are in agreement with those reported by [PERSON] et al. [67], where it is evident that the anthocyanin content is time-dependent. In both types of fermentation, a high anthocyanin content is observed at the beginning, which decreases during the process. These results are similar to that reported by [PERSON] et al. [29] possibly due to the hydrolysis and polymerization of condensed tannins [68], leaching with fermentation exudate [4], and the oxidation by PPO to anthocyanins [10; 69], among others. The decrease in anthocyanins during cocoa fermentation is associated with an increase in temperature (Figure 2) and a decrease in TPC (Tables 1 and 2) [70; 71], which is an indicator of a fermentation process [53; 56; 68]. In our study, it is observed that SC (Table 2) presented a more significant reduction in anthocyanins around 48 h compared to SF, similar to that obtained by [PERSON] et al. [72], which was possibly due to the action of _S. cerevisiae_ that accelerates the hydrolysis of anthocyanins [73], which remained stable after 120 h. This behavior is similar to that reported by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [15]. The antioxidant activity (AA) and TPC were reduced between 20% and 40% in both fermentations, similar to those reported by [PERSON] et al. [39], [PERSON] et al. [68], and [PERSON] et al. [74]. In the first 48 h of fermentation, AA values remained constant, similar to those obtained by [PERSON] et al. [29]. However, the duration of fermentation (\(p\) < 0.05), together with the maturity at harvest, affects the antioxidant profile of the bean [75; 76]. According to DPPH free radical scavenging, the activity in SF and SC was in the range of 57.1-92.4 umol (TE)/g and 45.7-93.9 umol (TE)/g, respectively, which were lower values than those reported by [PERSON] et al. (2020) because they worked with kernels separated from the pulp, demonstrating the contribution of the pulp to AA [77]. This behavior was confirmed by the ABTS method (Tables 1 and 2), where a 30% reduction concerning the initial value was observed, similar to that reported by [PERSON] et al. [74] for Trinitario cocoa.