Lycopene is a bright red carotenoid pigment, a phytochemical found in tomatoes and other red fruits.
Lycopene is the most common carotenoid in the human body and is one of the most potent carotenoid antioxidants. Its name is derived from the tomato's species classification, Solanum lycopersicum (formerly Lycopersicon esculentum).
Fruits and vegetables that are high in lycopene include tomatoes, watermelon, pink grapefruit, pink guava, papaya, red bell pepper, gac, and rosehip.
Unlike other fruits and vegetables, where nutritional content such as vitamin C is diminished upon cooking, processing of tomatoes increases the concentration of bioavailable lycopene. Lycopene in tomato paste is four times more bioavailable than in fresh tomatoes. This is because lycopene is so insoluble in water and is so tightly bound to vegetable fiber.
Thus processed tomato products such as pasteurized tomato juice, soup, sauce, and ketchup contain the highest concentrations of bioavailable lycopene. Cooking and crushing tomatoes (as in the canning process) and serving in oil-rich dishes (such as spaghetti sauce or pizza) greatly increases assimilation from the digestive tract into the bloodstream.
Lycopene is fat-soluble, so the oil is said to help absorption.Lycopene may be obtained from vegetables and fruits such as the tomato, but another source of lycopene is the fungus Blakeslea trispora.
Nutritional benefits
Lycopene is the most powerful carotenoid quencher of singlet oxygen, being 100 times more efficient in the singlet-oxygen quenching action than Vitamin E, which in turn has 125 times the quenching action of glutathione (water soluble).
Singlet oxygen produced during exposure to ultraviolet light is a primary cause of skin aging.Given its antioxidant properties, some scientific research has investigated the correlation between lycopene consumption and general health. Early research suggested some amelioration of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and even male infertility.The most recent study, however, has cast significant doubt on these benefits, showing no link between lycopene and cancer prevention. In fact, a related antioxidant, beta-carotene, was shown to increase the number of prostate cancer cases
