Enzyme aided extraction of lycopene from tomato tissues

Lycopene is a natural carotenoid pigment and a high value nutraceutical having wide use. The objective of the present work was to obtain a good yield of lycopene from tomato tissues, using cellulase and pectinase enzymes. Various parameters such as concentration of enzymes and time of incubation were optimised, to improve the yield of lycopene from tomatoes. Enzyme aided extraction of lycopene from whole tomatoes under optimised conditions resulted in an increase in the lycopene yield by 132 mu g/g (198%) in cellulase treated sample and 108 mu g/g (224%) in case of pectinase treated sample. Extraction from tomato peel under optimised conditions showed a remarkable increase in the yield of lycopene by 429 mu g/g (107%) and 1104 mu g/g (206%), for cellulase and pectinase treated samples, respectively. Likewise, the enzyme aided extraction of lycopene from fruit pulper waste and industrial waste of tomatoes was done to determine the potential for recovering the natural pigment from tomato waste. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.