Extraction of Lycopene from Tomato Using Hydrophobic Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents Based on Terpenes and Fatty Acids

Anastasia Kyriakoudi; Alexandros Tsiouras; Ioannis Mourtzinos

doi:10.3390/foods11172645

Extraction of Lycopene from Tomato Using Hydrophobic Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents Based on Terpenes and Fatty Acids

Foods. 2022 Aug 31;11(17):2645. doi: 10.3390/foods11172645.

Authors

Anastasia Kyriakoudi¹, Alexandros Tsiouras¹, Ioannis Mourtzinos¹

Affiliation

¹ Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.

Abstract

The present study proposes a green extraction approach for the recovery of lycopene from tomato fruits. Different hydrophobic natural deep eutectic solvents (HNADESs) based on terpenes (i.e., menthol and thymol) and fatty acids (i.e., decanoic acid and dodecanoic acid) were prepared at different molar ratios, characterised in terms of density, rheological properties, and Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and were examined for their effectiveness to extract lycopene from tomato. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimise the extraction parameters, namely duration (min) and solvent:solid ratio (v/w). Spectrophotometry and RP-HPLC-DAD were used in order to monitor the process efficiency. The combination of decanoic acid and dodecanoic acid was found to exhibit comparable extraction capacity to acetone. Taking into account that the HNADESs used in the present study are considered green, biodegradable and of low cost, the obtained carotenoid rich extracts are expected to be of use in industrial food applications.

Keywords: Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy; hydrophobic natural deep eutectic solvents; lycopene; response surface methodology; tomato.

Grants and funding

This research has been conducted in the frame of the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation”, under the call RESEARCH–CREATE–INNOVATE (“Development of new tomato cultivars by using omics technologies-Ntomatomics”, project code: T2EDK-01332) that was co-financed by Greek national funds and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund).