December 4, 2015 (Friday) Tokyo International Forum (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), January 13, 2016 (Wednesday) AP Hall Osaka Station (Kita-ku, Osaka City), March 25, 2016 (Friday) Electric Building At the Mirai Hall & Conference (Chuo-ku, Fukuoka City), Meiji Co., Ltd.'s "Explanation of Chocolate Initiatives and Research Results on Health Effects by Ingesting Chocolate" was held by Niichiro Koga, a Professor of the Department of Biosciences, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Science and Engineering, Teikyo University. We announced the research results of the joint research between the company and our university, "Exploratory research on the effect of improving the intestinal environment by ingesting chocolate". In this study, the effect of improving bowel movements by continuous intake of high cacao chocolate was demonstrated, and it was confirmed that the cause was the functional ingredient "cacao protein" contained in cacao. We also succeeded in extracting cacao protein for the first time in the world. The content of this announcement was aired on February 3, 2016 (Wednesday) at NHK General "Asaichi".

New functionality of chocolate

Cocoa beans, the main ingredient of chocolate, are rich in various polyphenols, and have been confirmed to have various health effects such as reducing the risk of arteriosclerosis and lowering blood pressure by lowering the inflammation index and oxidative stress index. I am. However, little is known about the functionality of cocoa-derived proteins. Therefore, the performers established a method for extracting cacao-derived protein (cacao protein) and investigated its properties, and as a result, it became clear that cacao protein is an indigestible protein. As a result, cocoa protein is not digested and absorbed in the small intestine and reaches the large intestine, becoming a base material for stool and increasing its bulk, and by changing the intestinal flora as food for intestinal bacteria, it promotes intestinal regulation. It was estimated that it would improve bowel movements.
Therefore, in order to prove this hypothesis, we conducted a test in mice, and as a result, it was confirmed that the group in which the mice were fed with cocoa protein had significantly higher fecal volume than the mice in which they were not fed with cocoa protein. I did. Next, we examined the effect of improving defecation in humans, and in the group that ingested high cocoa chocolate containing a large amount of cacao protein, the number of defecations, the amount of defecation, and the color of stool were clearly improved compared to before ingestion. On the other hand, in the group that took white chocolate that did not contain any cocoa protein, no significant improvement was observed in any of the items. This result suggests that cocoa protein may have a bowel movement improving effect even in humans. This research is a joint research with Meiji Co., Ltd.

Introducing Professor Niichiro Koga

Teikyo University Faculty of Science and EngineeringDepartment of Biosciences Professor
Doctor of Science. After graduating from the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, the University of Tokyo in 1985, he joined Meiji Seika Co., Ltd. In 2009, he Head of Center functional research at the company's National Institute of Food and Medicine. In 2011, after serving as Director of the Second Division of Functional Evaluation Research at the Meiji Institute for Functional Food, Ltd., he joined Teikyo University in November 2012 Faculty of Science and Engineering Department of BiosciencesAssociate Professor. He has been in his current position since April 2017.

■ Specialty: Food science, applied microbiology, plant pathology
■ Main research themes: Research on cacao protein, which has an effect of improving stool, and sphingolipid, which has an effect of suppressing cancer in animals and resistant to diseases of plants.

Professor Niichiro Koga