A growing body of scientific publications based on epidemiological data, cell culture and animal investigations and clinical studies, indicate the importance of lycopene to human health and well being. Joost Overeem reports.
Recent studies indicate that lycopene, the carotenoids that gives the ripe tomato its bright red colour, is a very effective natural antioxidant and quencher of free radicals. Lycopene is especially efficient in neutralising reactive oxygen species (ROS). These properties of lycopene are due to its unique chemical structure: a very long chain of conjugated double bonds.
free radicals
Paolo Di Mascio and his colleagues at the University of Dusseldorf, compared the free radical neutralising properties of carotenoids and found that lycopene is by far the most efficient biological singlet oxygen quencher(1).
A growing body of scientific publications based on epidemiological data, cell culture and animal investigations(2) and clinical studies(3), indicate the importance of lycopene to human health and well being. These studies were reviewed by A.V. Rao and S. Agarwal(2), E. Giovannucci(4) S. Clinton(5), H. Gerstein(6) and in the Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition(7). The scientific evidence clearly shows the beneficial effect of lycopene in prevention of degenerative diseases.
Twelve years ago, LycoRed Natural Products Industries, Ltd launched an ambitious program directed at producing a high quality tomato lycopene for the food industry to be used both as a natural colour and as an ingredient for food fortification. The first stage of the project was to develop hybrid tomato cultivars yielding fruit especially high in lycopene content.
Only conventional breeding methods were used without applying genetic engineering techniques. The tomato varieties that were developed yield two-to three-fold higher lycopene content than conventional tomatoes.
These tomatoes are cultivated under strict supervision. Only approved agrochemicals are used and their application schedule irrigation etc. is carefully designed and observed.
The ripe tomatoes are mechanically harvested and transported to the plant, where they are thoroughly washed and separated into serum and pulp.
The tomato pulp is then packed under vacuum and kept frozen (-18°C) until it is extracted in a specially designed modern facility.
The proprietary (US Patent No. 5,837,311) process uses conventional unit operations approved for the food industry. There is no chemical intervention in the process.
Protected from degradation
Throughout the production special care is taken to protect the lycopene from high temperatures and from prolonged contact with the air. The treatment is milder than that used in conventional tomato processing so that the lycopene is protected from degradation.
Strict quality control accompanies the various stages of production, from cultivating the tomatoes in the field to the standardising of the oleoresin for production of various formulations.
The processing is ISO-9002 certified and GMP approved. Each production batch is continuously tracked so that it can be traced back all the way to a particular lot of tomatoes in the field.
The tomato extract, Lyc-O-Mato oleoresin, consists of tomato lipids It contains high concentration of lycopene, partially dissolved and mostly dispersed in tomato oil, as well as several other important phytonutrients.
The ratio between the lipid phytonutrients that is found in the ripe tomato is preserved in the oleoresin.
There are many epidemiological studies that show that tomatoes and tomato products are instrumental in the prevention of disease. Originally, this beneficial effect on health was attributed to lycopene, the red carotenoid that is present in high concentration in ripe tomatoes.
Today, following series of careful studies, scientists believe that although lycopene contributes to the prevention of disease, it does not act alone.
The presence of other phytonutrients in the tomato, enhances the biological activity of lycopene and increase its bioavailability.
Lyc-O-Mato oleoresin contains all the natural lipid soluble tomato phytonutrients and therefore has very high biological activity. The effect of Lyc-O-Mato tomato oleoresin on the prevention of disease was shown in a series of recently conducted clinical studies(8)(9)(10)(11)(12).
Bibliography:
1 Di Mascio P, Kaiser S, and Sies M. "Lycopene as the Most Efficient Biological Carotenoid Singlet Oxygen Quencher“. Arch. Biochem. Biophy. 274: 535-538, 1989.
2 Rao A.V. and Agarwal S. "Role of Lycopene as Antioxidant Carotenoid in the Prevention of Chronic Diseases: A Review“. Nutrition Research Vol. 19 pp 305-328, 1999.
3 Kucuk O. et al. "Lycopene supplementation in men with prostate cancer reduces grade and volume of preneoplasia and tumor, decrease in serum prostate specific antigen and modulates biomarkers of growth and differentiation“. 12th International carotenold Symposium Abs SA-2, 1999.
4 Giovannucci E. "Tomatoes, Tomato-Based products, Lycopene and Cancer Review of Epidemiological literature“. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol 91, No. 4 Feb. 1999.
5 Clinton S. "Lycopene: Chemistry, Biology and Implications for Human Health and Disease“.
6 Gerster H. "The Potential Role of Lycopene for Human Health“. Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Vol 16, No. 2 pp 104 126, 1997.
7 Clydestale F. Editor. "Lycopene“. Critical Reviews In Food Science and Nutrition. Vol 39 Issue 3, 1999.
8 Paran E. and Engelhard Y. "Effect of Lyc-O-Mato standardized tomato extract on blood pressure, serum pipoproteins, plasma hymocysteine and oxidative stress markers in grade 1 hypertensive patients“. In press.
9 Stahl W. et al. "Supplementation with Tomato-Based Products Increases Lycopene, Phytofluene, and Phytoene Levels in Human Serum and Protects against UV Light-Induced Erythema“. In press.
10 Kucuk O. et al. "Phase II Randomized Clinical Trial of Lycopene Supplementation before Radical Prostatectomy“. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Vol. 10, 861-868, August 2001.
11 Ben-Amotz A. and Newman I. "Reduction of exercise-induced asthma oxidative stress by Lycopene, a natural antioxidant“. Allergy 55, 1184-1189 (2000).
12 Fuhrman B, Elis A. and Aviram M. "Hypocholesterolemic effect of lycopene and -carotene is related to suppression in cholesterol synthesis and augmentation of LDL receptor activity in macrphages“. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 233, 658-662 (1997), article No. RC976520. Dh-985.doc
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Joost Overeem is with LycoRed-Biodar Europe, Leusden. www.lycored.com
