Study On The Extraction Process Of Natural Lycopene

Lycopene is a straight-chained carotenoid composed of eleven conjugated and two non-conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds and is the intermediate for the biosynthesis of many carotenoids. It is a promising natural antioxidant. It can be widely used in pharmaceutical, premium cosmetics, health food, etc.Due to the use of different raw material, the methods of extraction and purification process are diversified and different from each others. Many researches are limited in the period of laboratory, and only a few of them can be used in industrial processing. China is prolific in the production of tomato, and obtaining lycopene from tomato is the major method. The planting of tomato and processing of tomato paste have become the agricultural backbone industry in Xinjiang, and the annual output of tomato paste is up to 400,000 tons, and occupied about 20% of the world total production. The tomato skin is the leftover in the production of tomato paste while the content of lycopene in tomato skin range from l0mg to 30mg per l00g wet tomato skin.In this paper, the extraction process of lycopene with tomato skin as raw material has been studied. The study has developed the lycopene for food color and health care, and provides the reliable technology route and technical parameters for further industrialized production., and provides the foundation for developing the pharmacology research.Firstly. Improving the test method for lycopene in tomato paste of GB. The study has determined a test method for lycopene content.Secondly. The study has discussed two process routes for the extraction of lycopene from tomato skin and finally determined the process that the organic solvent extraction of lycopene is combined with the supercritical extraction. It is extracting lycopene by the organic solvent firstly, and removal of residual solvent in the lycopene oleoresin by supercritical extraction secondly.Thirdly. The study has discussed the preparation method for highly concentrated lycopene and initial purification of lycopene oleoresin by saponification method and the refining of crude product by column chromatography to obtain lycopene with content of 87% finally.Fourthly. The dissociative lycopene is very easy to be oxided. The study on stability of lycopene oleoresin has shown that the sunlight and ultraviolet light exposure will have a heavy damaging effect on the lycopene oleoresin while room scattering light have less effect on it; Thefollowing have bigger damaging effect on the lycopene: acid, alkali, oxidizer H2O2, reducer Na2SO3, metallic ion Fe3+, Cu2+, Fe2+, A13+; Proper addition of antioxidant can reduce the loss of lycopene. Therefore, oleoresin should be stored from ironware, aluminum ware or copper ware. The galvanized iron drum can be used.Fifthly.The lycopene in the raw tomato skin is easily oxided in like manner. Thetemperature, oxygen, sunlight and the shape of tomato skin can have bigger effect on the content of lycopene during the storage of tomato skin. The raw tomato skin should be stored at low temperature (<-10 癈 ) ,away from light and oxygen, and in whole skin. Under such condition, after six months storage, the survival rate of lycopene in tomato skin is 52%.The above study has essentially determined the extraction process of lycopene from tomato skin, test method of lycopene content as well as storage method of raw material. The research on the stability of lycopene oleoresin has revealed a variety of factors affecting stability of lycopene and provided theoretical reference for the production storage and use of lycopene oleoresin. These research findings can be used directly for the development of red industry in western China, which plays a very important and economic role in the progress of highly effective agriculture in Xinjiang.