Studies On Lycopene And Its Extraction, Purification, Stability And Microencapsulation

Lycopene, a princinal pigment of the ripe tomatoes, is an important cartenoid with no oxygen. It is the intermediate for the biosynthesis of many carotenoids and mostly lies in plants , algae, fungus. In this paper, lycopene was extracted from tomatoes. Combining saponification with recrystallization, lycopene crystals were prepared from lycopene oleoresin. The stability and anti-oxidative properties of lycopene crystals in the soybean oil were studied, and the lycopene crystals were microencapsulated finially.1. Lycopene was extracted from tomatoes with mixture solvent(acetone/light petroleum/ethanol=2:1:1) through dewatering by frozen, washing by ethanol and saponificating by KOH solution. The mass ratio of tomato paste and organic solvent was 1:2, the extracting times was 2. Using extracting time, temperature, pH as positive complication, the optimum technology condition were determined by L₉(3³) orthogonal experiment. The best technology parameters of extraction were as following: extracting time was 4 hour, extracting temperature was 40℃, extracting pH was 7.2. Combining saponification with recrystallization, lycopene crystals were prepared from lycopene oleoresin. The lycopene crystals were characterized by SEM, FTIR, XRD, DSC. The results show that lycopene crystals are fine flake sized 10-20μm with high purity and the melting point of lycopene crystals is 173℃.3. The amount of lycopene in soybean oil decreased with the increasing of storage temperature and time, Light is more destructive to lycopene than that of temperature in the same condition. Lycopene can effectively control the acidation of oil, reduce the acid value and peroxide value of the soybean oil, and prolong the storage time. The anti-oxidative of lycopene with high density is obvious.4. Using lycopene crystals as core material and compound material (gelatin/β-cyclodextrin/sugur) as wall material(the employed mass ratio of core material and wall material was 0.2:1), and ethanol as solidification solvent, the mircoencapsulation of lycopene with lower moisture, higher solubility, and better stability for light and heat was prepared. The microencapsulated lycopene is a better way to store lycopene and can prolong the storage time of lycopene.