Lycopene
See also :
Lycopene is a bright red carotenoid and carotene pigment found in red fruits and vegetables especially tomatoes, except for cherries and strawberries. Other known sources are red carrots, papayas, watermelons. Lycopene in plants, and in other organisms that require the process of photosynthesis in making food, serve as an important substance in biosynthesizing carotenoids to give the plant its pigmentation. In humans, lycopene is not an essential nutrient but it is commonly found in the usual diet. The richest source of lycopene is processed and heat-treated tomato products like tomato paste and tomato ketchup.
Special Precautions of Lycopene
Anything taken in excessive dosage can have harmful effects to the body. Though lycopene is a non-toxic substance commonly found in the usual diet, excess in carotenoid intake may produce colorful side-effects – in the literal sense. Reports of excessive lycopene intake include the case of a woman who experienced skin discoloration called lycopenodermia after excessive and prolonged consumption of tomato products and tomato juice. Her blood had high levels of lycopene and her liver and skin had a yellow to orange color. The woman was advised to have a lycopene-free diet and after three weeks her skin regained its normal color.
Dietary sources
| Dietary sources of lycopene -Rao and Rao (2007) pp. 209–210 | |
|---|---|
| Source | μg/g wet weight |
| Gac | 2,000–2,300 |
| Shepherdia | |
| Raw tomatoes | 8.8–42 |
| Tomato juice | 86–100 |
| Tomato sauce | 63–131 |
| Tomato ketchup | 124 |
| Watermelon | 23–72 |
| Pink grapefruit | 3.6–34 |
| Pink guava | 54 |
| Papaya | 20–53 |
| Rose Hip puree | 7.8 |
| Apricot | < 0.1 |
Fruits and vegetables that are high in lycopene include gac, tomatoes, watermelon, pink grapefruit, pink guava, papaya, Sea Buckthorn, wolfberry (goji, a berry relative of tomato), and Rose Hip. Although gac (Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng) has the highest content of lycopene of any known fruit or vegetable, up to 70 times more than tomatoes for example, due to gac's rarity outside its native region of southeast Asia, tomatoes and tomato-based sauces, juices, and ketchup account for more than 85% of the dietary intake of lycopene for most people. The lycopene content of tomatoes depends on species and increases as the fruit ripens. Unlike other fruits and vegetables, where nutritional content such as vitamin C is diminished upon cooking, of tomatoes increases the concentration of lycopene. Lycopene in tomato paste is four times more bioavailable than in fresh tomatoes. For this reason, tomato sauce is a preferable source as opposed to raw tomatoes.
While most green leafy vegetables and other sources of lycopene are low in fats and oils, lycopene is insoluble in water and is tightly bound to vegetable fiber. Processed tomato products such as pasteurized tomato juice, soup, sauce, and ketchup contain the highest concentrations of bioavailable lycopene from tomato-based sources.
Cooking and crushing tomatoes (as in the canning process) and serving in oil-rich dishes (such as spaghetti sauce or pizza) greatly increases assimilation from the digestive tract into the bloodstream. Lycopene is fat-soluble, so the oil is said to help absorption. Gac is a notable exception, containing high concentrations of lycopene and also saturated and unsaturated fatty acids.
Lycopene may be obtained from vegetables and fruits such as the tomato, but another source of lycopene is the fungus Blakeslea trispora. Gac is a promising commercial source of lycopene for the purposes of extraction and purification.
The cis-lycopene from some varieties of tomato is more bioavailable.
Note that there are some resources which make the mistaken assumption that all red fruits contain lycopene, when in fact many are pigmented by other chemicals. An example is the blood orange, which is colored by anthocyanin, while other red colored oranges, such as the Cara cara navel, and other citrus fruit, such as pink grapefruit, are colored by lycopene.
In addition, some foods which do not appear red also contain lycopene, e.g., asparagus, which contains about 30μg of lycopene per 100 gram servingand dried parsley and basil, which contain about 3.5-7 μg of lycopene per gram
The benefits of Lycopene are
- Heart Attacks : Higher lycopene and b-carotene blood levels reduce heart attack risks.
- Heart Disease : Lycopene is a potent antioxidant and natural anti-inflammatory. Inflammation is a key element in the development of heart disease. Lycopene helps dramatically cut inflammation. This helps prevent hardening of the arteries, heart attack and stroke.
- Cholesterol : Lycopene in tomatoes reduces ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol in the blood whilst slightly increasing good cholesterol levels.
- Hypertension : It also reduces blood pressure.
- Asthma : Though no concrete evidence has been established regarding this matter, lycopene had shown indication from scientific studies of being potent in preventing asthma caused by exercise and heightened physical exertion. This is rooted mainly on lycopene’s antioxidant properties.
- Healthy Skin : Lycopene can be used as a sunscreen and antioxidant in one. Once in the body, lycopene deters skin aging by destroying free radicals and protects the skin from the inside against damage caused by the UV rays of the sun. Lycopene supplements and lycopene skin care products like lycopene lotion with relatively efficient SPF levels are crowding the market. The lycopene content of these products may come from natural sources or they may have been synthesized artificially. But if you want it the natural way and not from a tube, there will always be the ketchup in the cupboard.
- Cancer
- Prevention : Preliminary evidence from several studies regarding lycopene’s antioxidant properties has made it one of the candidates as a potential agent in the prevention of cancer.Lycopene is continuously being studied for its efficacy in the prevention of several types of cancer. Studies have shown significant evidence of lycopene’s protective properties against lung cancer, prostate cancer and cancer of the stomach. But results and findings remain preliminary and inconclusive, and further research is required to really determine the efficacy of lycopene as an anti-cancer agent. It’s not clear whether lycopene is contributory to the effect, but studies are continuously investigating the matter. Despite all the uncertainties, getting sufficient dosage of lycopene from tomatoes and processed tomato products will not harm you either.
- Lycopene is confirmed to be a cancer stem cell killer. Cancer stem cells are largely responsible for the failure of conventional cancer treatment.
- It may also help with improving the effectiveness of medicines used in the treatment of various cancers.
- Eyesight : Lycopene is a high-powered antioxidant that comes from tomatoes. Along with lutien and zeaxanthin this natural supplement can also protect your cells and tissues from free radical damage. Scientific evidence has demonstrated the protective effects of dietary tomatoes on the oxidative stress in the retinal pigment epithelium.
- may help in the prevention of osteoporosis.
- It is also essential in keeping the bones healthy.
