Lycopene

From Free net encyclopedia

Lycopene (molecular formula: C₄₀H₅₆) is a bright red carotenoid pigment, a phytochemical found in tomatoes and other red fruits. Lycopene is the most common carotenoid in the human body and is one of the most potent carotenoid antioxidants. Its name is derived from the tomato's species classification, Solanum lycopersicum. Fruits and vegetables that are high in lycopene include not only tomatoes, but watermelon, pink grapefruit, papaya, and rosehip. Unlike other fruits and vegetables, where nutritional content such as vitamin C is diminished upon cooking, processing of tomatoes increases the concentration of bioavailable lycopene. Thus processed tomato products such as tomato juice, soup, sauce, and ketchup contain the highest concentrations of lycopene. There is evidence that frequent intake of such products is associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer (especially prostate cancer), diabetes, osteoporosis, and even male infertility. [1] [2].

1 Structure
2 Health
3 Food Coloring
4 Sources
5 External links

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Structure

Image:Lycopene.png

Lycopene is a terpene assembled from 8 isoprene units.

The color of lycopene is due to its many conjugated carbon double bonds. Each double bond reduces the energy required for electrons to transition to higher energy states, allowing the molecule to absorb visible light of progressively shorter wavelengths. Lycopene absorbs most of the visible spectrum, so it appears red.

If lycopene is oxidized (for example, by reacting with bleaches or acids), the double bonds between carbon atoms will be broken, cleaving the molecule into smaller molecules each double-bonded to an oxygen atom. Although C=O bonds are also chromophoric, the much shorter molecules are unable to absorb enough light to appear colorful. A similar effect occurs if lycopene is reduced; reduction may saturate (convert the double bonds to single bonds) the lycopene molecule, diminishing its ability to absorb light.

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Health

Due to lycopene's long, unsaturated chain, it is a potent antioxidant in the human body. It tends to be stored in a wide variety of organs and binding sites (including the liver, prostate, lungs, colon, and skin), making it the carotenoid with the widest distribution in the body. An FDA study found that tomatoes were the only one of a group of 46 fruits and vegetables to significantly decrease the rate of prostate cancer; the effect was correlated with serum lycopene levels. It is believed to account for the low rates of cancers of the digestive tract in Italians.

Because of its antioxidant effect (and its bioavailability), lycopene could hypothetically prevent or slow the course of age-related macular degeneration. Although this has never been shown, other antioxidants (including carotenoid derviatives of lycopene) have been shown to protect the macula.

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Food Coloring

Due to its ubiquity, lycopene has been licensed for use as a food coloring. Because lycopene is so insoluble in water and is so tightly bound to vegetable fiber, the bioavailablity of lycopene is increased by food processing. For example 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 not water-soluble and instantly stains any sufficiently porous material, including most plastics. While a tomato stain can be fairly easily removed from fabric (provided the stain is fresh), discolored plastic defies all efforts to drive out the lycopene with hot water, soap, or detergent. (Bleach will destroy lycopene, however.) Plastics are especially susceptible to staining if heated, scratched, oiled, or pitted by acids (such as those found in tomatoes).