Solubility in supercritical carbon dioxide of the predominant carotenes of tomato skin

Solubilities in supercritical carbon dioxide of the predominant carotenes in tomato skin were measured. The use of a polymeric C-30 RP-HPLC column to analyze the tomato extract made it possible to separate several geometric isomers from each carotene extracted. The Chrastil model was used to assign a solubility equation to each extracted carotene. Different solubility behaviors in supercritical carbon dioxide were shown by carotenes depending on their nature and configuration. The most soluble carotene was all-trans-phytoene and the least soluble was all-trans-lycopene. Significant differences in solubility were observed between the trans and cis isomers of lycopene. The results indicate that a fractionation of the tomato skin carotenes can be achieved by using supercritical CO2 extraction.