Abstract
Lycopene is a pigment principally responsible for the characteristic deep-red color of ripe tomato fruits.It has a natural source of antioxidants, has attracted attentions due to its biological and physicochemical properties. In this study tomato paste prepared From fresh, processed, EMS mutagenesis plants fresh fruits and riped fruits was dehydrated with methanol, then lycopene was extracted with methanol-carbon tetrachloride mixture.Pure lycopene was obtained by twice crystallization of crude product from benzene through addition of boiling methanol.Further purification was achieved by using column chromatography with silica as the adsorbent.Its antioxidant capacity was performed by H2O2 radical scavenging assay.The lycopene showed great inihibition agains free radicals generated from H2O2.H2O2 also cause damage to the RNA ,In this study lycopene employed to protect standard RNA sample from oxidative insult, and it showed good results.Due to its antioxidant property and deep red color it was used in as a food color and its color efficiency was observed against the standard food color. From this study we can conclude that lycopene from tomato would be beneficial in the treatment of cancer as well as Alzheimer’s disease.
