Cocoa, a perennial tree crop widely grown in West Africa and South America with so many industrial uses is also reported to contain polyphenols with high antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. The study's main aim was thus to test for the presence of phytochemicals in cocoa leaves and determine their yields per the various extraction Methods. Fresh cocoa leaves were plucked from cocoa plants (at Juaso Cocoa Research Station, Ghana) steam-blanched, dried, powdered and qualitatively analysed. Crude aqueous cocoa leaf extracts (CLE) were also prepared by cold maceration for 7 days. Polyphenolic compounds (total phenol content and total antioxidant capacity) were assessed using standard Methods. Preliminary phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of saponins, tannins, glycosides, triterpenoids, sterols, coumarins, flavonoids, and alkaloids. The various assessments showed that ethylacetate-purified CLE yielded the highest in both total phenol content and total antioxidant capacity whereas the crude aqueous CLE was the least active. In the resulting weights of yields (w/w) of extracts, the ethylacetate-purified CLE yielded the highest (57%), followed by acetone purified CLE (10%) and the lowest by crude aqueous CLE (6.7%). Total phenolics varied from 22.07 < 70.60 < 274.90 mg g-1for crude aqueous CLE, acetone purified CLE and ethylacetate-purified CLE, respectively. Ethylacetate-purified CLE was the most potent in antioxidants (2034.72 mg g-1) followed by acetone purified CLE (671.77 mg g-1) and crude aqueous CLE (349.91 mg g-1). The cocoa leaves exhibited high total phenol content and antioxidant capacity with the ethylacetate-purified extraction method, with the least polarity, yielding the highest polyphenols. We, therefore, conclude that purified cocoa leaf extracts are jam-packed with antioxidants that could be exploited for use as natural antimicrobials. © 2023 International Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved.