Effects of the consumption of fresh and processed tomato products on blood and tissue lycopene concentrations

The consumption of tomato products has been associated with a reduced risk of several cancers in epidemiologic studies. Lycopene, the predominant carotenoid in tomatoes, is hypothesized to be one component contributing to the health benefits of tomato products. This research has been designed to evaluate the effects of consuming various tomato products on the lycopene concentrations circulating in blood and in buccal mucosal cells (BMC) and/or human milk secretions.; Three distinct Clinical Studies were designed to evaluate the objective. The first compares blood and BMC lycopene after consumption of sauce made from two different tomato varieties; one predominantly all-trans lycopene and the other predominantly tetra-cis lycopene. The second examined blood and BMC lycopene concentrations after standard, daily servings of three commercially available tomato products. The third investigated how blood, BMC, and human milk lycopene changed in a group of lactating mothers consuming either fresh tomatoes or processed tomato sauce.; The first study demonstrated an increase in total blood lycopene concentrations that was significant only when the tetra-cis lycopene sauce was consumed, although there was no change in BMC. We observed a 48% drop in total plasma lycopene during the lycopene free diet portion of the second study, and a significant increase over baseline of 90–192% for all groups. BMC lycopene concentrations increased during intervention by 42–165%. Total plasma lycopene increased in the third study by 12% and 23% for fresh and processed groups, respectively, while the milk lycopene increase was significant for the processed group only. No change was observed in BMC.; This research demonstrates that daily servings of processed tomato products will increase blood lycopene in less than 2 weeks. That increase can be observed in BMC tissues after 2 weeks. Cis lycopene isomers are absorbed from the diet and result in increased plasma cis-lycopene. Plasma lycopene concentrations will increase rapidly in a group of lactating women when consuming slightly higher than typical lycopene amounts in the diet. The transfer of lycopene from blood into breast milk is rapid and is observed in milk secretions especially when processed tomato products are consumed.