Lycopene in fresh tomatoes

Lycopene is well known as the predominant carotene in tomatoes, accounting for 65 to 98% of the total colored carotenoid content, depending on the cultivar (Table 4.2.3). The levels of lycopene in fresh tomatoes for salad varied from 21 to 79 g/g 34,35 jjj tomatoes for processing and deep-red tomatoes, the level of lycopene can be as high as 623 More than 80% of the tomatoes produced are... 

The amount of lycopene in fresh tomato fruits is influenced by variety, agricultural practices, maturity and the environmental conditions under which the fruits matured. Tomatoes of the common variety Lycopersicon esculentum typically contain about 3 to lOmgoflycopeneper 100 g of ripe fresh fruit (Hart and Scott, 1995 Tonuccietal 1995). 

Lycopene in fresh tomatoes is less bioavailable than lycopene in heat-treated tomato products (Figure 4.5). Lycopene serum concentrations are indeed greater following the consumption of heat-processed tomato-based foods than after the consumption of unprocessed fresh tomatoes (Giovannucci et al., 1995 Gartner et al., 1997). Stahl and Sies (1992) found that 20-30% of total lycopene consisted of cw-isomers when tomatoes were heated at 100°C for 1 h. 

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