The decrease in the amount of lycopene as a function of storage time was followed, and the effect of storage conditions on recovery was tested. Many carotenoids exhibit brilliant colors, which makes them commercially important as natural pigments. The major sources of lycopene are tomatoes and tomato products. The characteristic red color of these products is due to lycopene. Nevertheless, no direct benefit of lycopene has yet been proven and the synergic effects with other compounds in tomatoes may thus be important.
Organic solvents are expensive, hazardous to use, and costly to dispose of.
In addition, in the case of food applications, the lack of solvent residues is a huge advantage. The non-polarity of CO 2 is often an essential drawback, but this limitation can be overcome through the addition of a small amount of more polar solvent as modifier. In this work we extracted lycopene with supercritical carbon dioxide and analyzed the extracts by high-performance liquid chromatography. Materials and methods Reagents and samples. Tomatoes, bought from a local supermarket, were Finnish or Spanish depending on the season.