A process for selectively extracting cocoa procyanidins from an aqueous
mixture of cocoa polyphenols, by using a particular sequence of acetate
solvents and/or diethyl ether solvents to extract selected desired
procyanidin monomers and/or oligomers. The aqueous mixture of cocoa
polyphenols is first extracted with n-butyl acetate. The acetate solvents
include n-butyl acetate, ethyl acetate and methyl acetate. The diethyl
ether solvents include mixtures of methyl acetate and diethyl ether in
the following ratios (methyl acetate:diethyl ether): 0:100, 25:75, 75:25
(all v/v).