Evaluation of Stable Pigment Extracted from Red Tomato (Solanum lycopersicon)

Abstract

Lycopene is a bright red carotenoid pigment and a phytochemical
compound that can be discovered in the tomatoes. The aim of this study is to produce
the stable colouring towards temperature and pH by using suitable method of
extraction and its potential to be alternative natural food colourant. The lycopene
pigment was detected at wavelength 470 and 471 nm by using UV-Vis spectroscopy
analysis. In this study, the lycopene was extracted from red tomato (Solanum
lycopersicon) by using hexane and acetone as the solvent. The maceration method
has been applied in order to maintain the stability of the pigment where 173.88 mg/kg
tomato pomace obtained from this study. Lycopene pigment was instable at alkaline
medium and at temperature 50 and 60 °C where the great loss of this pigment is
noticed at both parameters. Meanwhile, the antioxidant activities (66.35 %) and
antimicrobial properties towards gram-positive bacteria were confirmed to be present
inside the lycopene pigment.
Keywords: Lycopene, Extraction, Stability, Antioxidant, Antimicrobial.