Abstract

LYCOPENE PROPERTIES AND IT’S BENEFITS IN HUMAN HEALTH: A BRIEF REVIEW

Ganesh N. S.*, K. Bhagya Lakshmi and Vineeth Chandy

ABSTRACT

Presently food supplements and nutraceuticals plays major role in the prevention of various maladies through dietary regimen module. Consumption of fruits and vegetables based diet has pursuit a range of bioactive components, especially phytochemicals which are targeting life threatening ailments. In this contest, Lycopene is an extensively studied antioxidant potentially present in watermelon, tomato, pink guava etc. Lycopene is a pigment which is responsible for the characteristic red color of ripe tomato fruits and tomato products. It has attention due to its biological and physicochemical properties, especially related to its effects as a natural antioxidant which has ability to scavenge lipid peroxyl radicals, reactive oxygen species, and nitric oxide. Lycopene shows its action by exhibiting a physical quenching rate constant with singlet oxygen almost twice as high as that of β-carotene. The epidemiological studies of lycopene concluded that it reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease in humans than the other carotenoids like β-carotene. It also inhibits cellular proliferation and acts as anti inflammatory. Chemically it is an unsaturated hydrocarbon from carotenoid family which consists of 40-carbon fat soluble compound containing 13 double bonds. Lycopene exits in several stereoisomers that is cis-lycopene and all-trans lycopene. In which cis- isomer shows more action than all-trans form. However there is a poor statistical association between dietary and serum lycopene levels because of its poor bioavailability from dietary sources and instability. Therefore, new nutraceutical formulations of carotenoids with enhanced bioavailability and stability are needed. In present review possible mechanism of action of lycopene, its chemical & physical properties and its role in human health and disease prevention are summarized.

Keywords: Lycopene, Nutraceuticals, Antioxidant, Anticancer.