Drying techniques of tomato pomace and lycopene extraction

Lycopene, an important carotenoid in tomatoes is responsible for the red colour in tomatoes. The antioxidant capability of lycopene has led to promising results in decreasing the risk of some illnesses and diseases. Tomato pomace is considered to be the potential raw material for production of natural lycopene. The effects of different dryers (tray, vacuum and fluidized bed) and drying temperature (50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 C) on lycopene retention in dried pomace were evaluated. The dried pomace produced using standardized drying technique was used for optimization of supercritical fluid extraction processing parameters (temperature, pressure, dynamic time and particle size) on the basis of yield and purity of lycopene extracted. Purity of lycopene was determined using HPLC. The optimum value of lycopene extract (4.93 g/100 g) and its purity (81.319 %) was found when the super critical fluid extraction system was operated at 60 C temperature, 375 bar pressure, 120 min dynamic time and keeping particle size of dried pomace of 0.6 mm. Changes in purity of lycopene stored at - 4 C were less prominent till 60 days.