Kinetics of lycopene degradation in sunflower and grape seed oils

The stability of lycopene in two vegetable oils, sunflower seed oil (SSO) and grape seed oil (GSO), was investigated by analyzing the carotenoid degradation kinetics in the temperature range of 10–40°C. A tomato oleoresin containing 6% (w/w) of lycopene was used to prepare lycopene-enriched oil samples. Analysis of kinetic data showed that lycopene degradation follows first-order kinetics, with an apparent activation energy of 70.7 kJ mol–1 in SSO and 69 kJ mol–1 in GSO. The estimated half-life of lycopene was found to depend on oil type and storage temperature. At 20°C, it varied between 59 and 122 days, while at 4°C it was comprised between 302 and 650 days. At all temperatures, lycopene was more stable in SSO than in GSO, which is likely due to the higher content of antioxidant compounds in SSO

A review about lycopene-induced nuclear hormone receptor signalling in inflammation and lipid metabolism via still unknown endogenous apo-10´-lycopenoids

Lycopene is the red pigment in tomatoes and tomato products and is an important dietary carotenoid found in the human organism. Lycopene-isomers, oxidative lycopene metabolites and apo-lycopenoids are found in the food matrix. Lycopene intake derived from tomato consumption is associated with alteration of lipid metabolism and a lower incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Lycopene is mainly described as a potent antioxidant but novel studies are shifting towards its metabolites and their capacity to mediate nuclear receptor signalling. Di-/tetra-hydro-derivatives of apo-10´-lycopenoic acid and apo-15´-lycopenoic acids are potential novel endogenous mammalian lycopene metabolites which may act as ligands for nuclear hormone mediated activation and signalling. In this review, we postulate that complex lycopene metabolism results in various lycopene metabolites which have the ability to mediate transactivation of various nuclear hormone receptors like RARs, RXRs and PPARs. A new mechanistic explanation of how tomato consumption could positively modulate inflammation and lipid metabolism is discussed

Prolycopene, a Naturally Occurring Stereoisomer of Lycopene

In this paper we record the observation that there occurs in the variety of tomato called "tangerine tomato" a carotenoid, prolycopene, which is an isomer of lycopene; the isomeric relationship is similar to that between lycopene and neolycopene,I and in our opinion prolycopene is to be classed as a naturally occurring neolycopene, being the first observed natural neo form of a C40-carotenoid

Practical, reliable and inexpensive assay of lycopene in tomato products based on the combined use of light emitting diode (LED) and the optothermal window

Light emitting diode (LED) combined with the concept of optothermal window (OW) is proposed as a new approach (LED-OW) to detect lycopene in a wide range of tomato-based products (tomato juice, tomato ketchup, tomato passata and tomato puree). Phytonutrient lycopene is a dominant antioxidant in these products while beta-carotene is present in significantly lower quantities. Therefore for all practical reasons the interfering effect of beta-carotene at 502 nm analytical wavelength can be neglected. The LED-OW method is low-cost and simple, yet accurate and precise. The major attributes of the new method are its rapid speed of response and the fact that no preparation whatsoever of the sample is needed before the analysis. The lycopene found in tomato products studied here varies from 8 mg/100 g to 60 mg/100 g fresh product. Results obtained by LED-OW method were compared to the outcome of conventional, time consuming spectrophotometric methods and the correlation was very good (R = 0.98). Precision of the LED-OW instrumental setup ranged from 0.5 to 7.4%; the RSD achieved for lycopene-richest samples (= 40 mg/100 g) did not exceed 1.7%. Repeatability of analysis by LED-OW was found to vary between 0.7 and 7.1%

Comparison of the Nutritive Quality of Tomato Fruits from Organic and Conventional Production in Poland

Organic horticulture is generally accepted as friendly to the environment, good for crop quality and also for the consumer’s health. Recent research data has shown that organic crops under organic farming practices contained more bioactive substances such as flavones, vitamin C, carotenoids; they also contain less pesticides residues, nitrates and nitrites. Five tomato cultivars: four large – fruit (Rumba, Juhas, Kmicic, Gigant) and one cherry cultivar (Koralik) were selected for study. The organic tomato fruits contained more dry matter, total and reducing sugars, vitamin C, total flavones and beta-carotene, but less lycopene in comparison to conventionally grown tomatoes

Organic or mineral fertilization

To meet Swedish environmental goals organic farming will play an important role in the development of a sustainable and high quality food production system. However, several conflicts exist, such as the achievement of high yields without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides and the minimization of nutrient losses. In this thesis the effect of organic fertilizers compared to mineral fertilizers on plant product quality was investigated. Tomato yield and quality aspects such as taste and chemical composition were measured. Three greenhouse experiments were performed at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala during 2002 and 2004. Organic fertilizers, based on chicken manure or fresh grass clover mulch, were compared to mineral fertilizer nutrient solutions with ammonium or nitrate as the dominant nitrogen source. In both years yields from the mineral fertilized tomato plants were higher than from the organic fertilized ones. However, plant nitrogen status was similar for all treatments and the limiting nutrient in the organic grass-mulch treatment appeared to be sulphur, as the addition of mineral sulphur increased the yield. The effects on quality appeared to be more complex. While taste test scores and vitamin C contents in 2002 were highest in the organic or ammonium-fertilized tomatoes and lowest in the nitrate-fertilized tomatoes, in 2004 the results were contrary. Taste is a complex quality aspect, affected by sugars, acids and other secondary compounds (aromatic flavour compounds), which apart from nutrient supply are affected by environmental conditions as sunlight and temperature that are beyond the grower’s control. It was concluded that organic or mineral fertilizers are not the major factors affecting yield and product quality. A balanced nutrient supply is important for yield and quality, irrespective nutrient source. A combination of organic and mineral fertilizers should be considered in order to achieve a resource saving and balanced nutrient supply and a high quality tomato yield

Biologically active compounds in tomatoes from various fertilisation systems

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of way of tomatoes cultivation on content of both health promoting and toxic components representing by carotenoids (lycopene, β-carotene), vitamin C and glycoalkaloids (α-tomatine, dehydrotomatine). The levels of biologically active compounds were shown to be strongly affected by the degree of maturity of fruit and varied among system with various fertilizers. Slurry, organic fertilizer with high fertilization efficiency, is good alternative to mineral fertilization. Lower content of toxic glycoalkaloids was found in tomatoes from organic and combined “low input” farming. The differences were variety depended in some extent

Biosynthesis of fucoxanthin and diadinoxanthin and function of initial pathway genes in Phaeodactylum tricornutum

The biosynthesis pathway to diadinoxanthin and fucoxanthin was elucidated in Phaeodactylum tricornutum by a combined approach involving metabolite analysis identification of gene function. For the initial steps leading to β-carotene, putative genes were selected from the genomic database and the function of several of them identified by genetic pathway complementation in Escherichia coli. They included genes encoding a phytoene synthase, a phytoene desaturase, a ζ-carotene desaturase, and a lycopene β-cyclase. Intermediates of the pathway beyond β-carotene, present in trace amounts, were separated by TLC and identified as violaxanthin and neoxanthin in the enriched fraction. Neoxanthin is a branching point for the synthesis of both diadinoxanthin and fucoxanthin and the mechanisms for their formation were proposed. A single isomerization of one of the allenic double bounds in neoxanthin yields diadinoxanhin. Two reactions, hydroxylation at C8 in combination with a keto-enol tautomerization and acetylation of the 3′-HO group results in the formation of fucoxanthin

Lycopene treatment of prostate cancer cell lines inhibits adhesion and migration properties of the cells

licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Reproduction is permitted for personal, noncommercial use, provided that the article is in whole, unmodified, and properly cited. Received: 2014.03.17; Accepted: 2014.05.23; Published: 2014.07.02 Background: Consumption of lycopene through tomato products has been suggested to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Cellular adhesion and migration are important features of cancer progression and therefore a potential target for cancer interception. In the present study we have examined the in vitro effect of lycopene on these processes. Methods: Prostate cancer cell lines PC3, DU145 and immortalised normal prostate cell line PNT-2 were used. The adhesion assay consisted of seeding pre-treated cells onto Matrigel™, gently removing non-adherent cells and quantitating the adherent fraction using WST-1. Migratory potential was assessed using ibidi ™ migration chamber inserts, in which a cell-free zone between two confluent areas was allowed to populate over time and the migration measured. Results: 24 hour incubation of prostate cell lines with 1.15µmol/l lycopene showed a 40 % re-duction of cellular motility in case of PC3 cells, 58 % in DU145 cells and no effect was observed for PNT2 cells. A dose related inhibition of cell adhesion to a basement membrane in the form o

De novo transcriptome sequencing in Bixa orellana to identify genes involved in methylerythritol phosphate, carotenoid and bixin biosynthesis.

BackgroundBixin or annatto is a commercially important natural orange-red pigment derived from lycopene that is produced and stored in seeds of Bixa orellana L. An enzymatic pathway for bixin biosynthesis was inferred from homology of putative proteins encoded by differentially expressed seed cDNAs. Some activities were later validated in a heterologous system. Nevertheless, much of the pathway remains to be clarified. For example, it is essential to identify the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) and carotenoid pathways genes.ResultsIn order to investigate the MEP, carotenoid, and bixin pathways genes, total RNA from young leaves and two different developmental stages of seeds from B. orellana were used for the construction of indexed mRNA libraries, sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform and assembled de novo using Velvet, CLC Genomics Workbench and CAP3 software. A total of 52,549 contigs were obtained with average length of 1,924 bp. Two phylogenetic analyses of inferred proteins, in one case encoded by thirteen general, single-copy cDNAs, in the other from carotenoid and MEP cDNAs, indicated that B. orellana is closely related to sister Malvales species cacao and cotton. Using homology, we identified 7 and 14 core gene products from the MEP and carotenoid pathways, respectively. Surprisingly, previously defined bixin pathway cDNAs were not present in our transcriptome. Here we propose a new set of gene products involved in bixin pathway.ConclusionThe identification and qRT-PCR quantification of cDNAs involved in annatto production suggest a hypothetical model for bixin biosynthesis that involve coordinated activation of some MEP, carotenoid and bixin pathway genes. These findings provide a better understanding of the mechanisms regulating these pathways and will facilitate the genetic improvement of B. orellana