LC-QTOF/MS Untargeted Metabolomics of Sheep Milk under Cocoa Husks Enriched Diet

The aim of this work was to evaluate, by an untargeted metabolomics approach, changes
of milk metabolites induced by the replacement of soybean hulls with cocoa husks in the ewes’ diet.
Animals were fed with a soybean diet integrated with 50 or 100 g/d of cacao husks. Milk samples
were analyzed by an ultra high performance liquid chromatograph coupled to a time of flight mass
spectrometer (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) platform. Multivariate statistical analysis showed that the time of
sampling profoundly affected metabolite levels, while differences between treatments were evident
at the fourth week of sampling. Cocoa husks seem to induce level changes of milk metabolites
implicated in the thyroid hormone metabolism and ubiquinol-10 biosynthesis.