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Cocoa is known for its beneficial effect on human health because of the essential actives ingredient contains there in. Local consumption of cocoa has been very low in developing countries and effort is geared toward encouraging daily consumption of cocoa products in cocoa producing areas of the world. This study assesses the perception of consumers with respect to health benefit of cocoa powder consumption. Cocoa powder was administered on 80 respondents who were randomly selected from records of healthcare facilities at the Medical Centre of Cocoa Research institute of Nigeria, Ibadan, Oyo State. The variables considered in the study were in terms of the beneficial effect of consumption of cocoa powder with reference to acceptability, frequency of consumption, rate of malaria since commencement of consumption, extension to family members, purchase if sold and health improvement due to regular intake of malaria. The data were analyzed using percentages, mean, standard deviation. The result shows the mean age of the respondent to be (33.57%). Majority of the respondents (32.5) were female while those that are married represent 65.0%.

The high awareness level of the beneficial effect of cocoa powder which is accompanied by low consumption is a source of concern in Nigeria over the years. The awareness level of health benefit of cocoa consumption is (70.0%) while consumption rate of cocoa powder is as low as (31.3%). The resultant effect of this is the high expenditure on treatment of malaria (57.3%) of the respondent spent close to 3999 in the treatment of malaria. However, many used various means of treatment while (50.0%) spend money on drugs for malaria treatments. Those who consumed cocoa powder frequently is as low as (13.0%) while 56.0% rarely consumed in spite of knowledge of the beneficial effect of regular intake of cocoa powder on human health. Similarly, the results from this study shows that, the health history of consumption among respondent with genotype AA is as high as (46.7%), these have health history of frequent malaria occurrence (54.7%), high family attack of malaria (66.7%) while (50.0%) of these respondents used drug for treatment of malaria.