ABSTRACT The attractiveness of coffee depends on the post‐harvest processing conditions to which the beans are subjected. These different treatments induce biochemical changes that are responsible for the development of more or less desirable flavors. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the influence of post‐harvest coffee treatments on its antioxidant potential and bioactive compound profile. To this end, freshly harvested coffee beans ( Coffea arabica L.) were ground and dried. The dried beans were divided into six batches: the first was ground directly, the second was soaked, the third was soaked and roasting, and the fourth was fermented. The fifth was fermented and then roasted, and finally the sixth was roasted. The samples obtained were used to assess the antioxidant potential and the profile of bioactive compounds using GC‐MS. The analysis showed that the cooking treatments had a significant effect ( p < 0.05) on the antioxidant potential and the content of bioactive compounds in the coffee beans. Phenolic and flavonoid contents varied from 12.82 (untreated) to 94.87 mg GAE/g extract and from 9.89 (raw) to 54.10 mg CE/g extract (fermentation + roasting), respectively. Fermentation + roasting improved these two parameters by 640.02% (phenolic compounds) and 447.02% (flavonoids). The antiradical potential was greater with fermentation‐roasting, with an improvement of almost 43%. Fermentation‐roasting identified the most bioactive compounds (10) and the phenolic class represented the majority of compounds in all samples. The different treatments improved the caffeine content, with fermentation yielding the highest percentage (85.69%). The application of fermentation + roasting to coffee as a post‐harvest treatment would make it possible to supply the world market with a product of good organic quality.
Téné et al. (Sat,) studied this question.