Cardiovascular disease remains a leading global cause of mortality, demanding effective prevention and management. This systematic review explores the impact of lycopene, prevalent in various fruits, on cardiovascular health. Thirteen randomized and controlled trials were analyzed, involving 385 participants with cardiovascular risk factors. Notable findings included significant blood pressure reductions, particularly among hypertensive individuals, and favorable alterations in lipid profiles. Lycopene interventions also demonstrated potential in mitigating oxidative stress and inflammation markers. While these findings show promise, more rigorously designed studies are essential to determine optimal dosages and durations for precise cardiovascular benefits. In conclusion, lycopene shows potential in managing cardiovascular risk factors, and its role in blood pressure regulation, lipid profile improvement, and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects is encouraging. Nonetheless, further research is warranted to provide definitive guidance on integrating lycopene to enhance cardiovascular health.

Ovarian folliculogenesis and the production of fertilizable oocytes depend on gap junctional intercellular communication within both the developing and the mature follicle. Gap junctions connect oocytes with granulosa cells and granulosa cells with each other. Various nutritional bio-molecules are known to be transferred to the growing oocyte from the granulosa cells via gap junction. Signals that regulate meiotic maturation of fully-grown oocytes pass through the oocyte-granulosa cell gap junctions. Gap junctions also play a critical role in regulating uterine blood flow, contributing to the maternal recognition and also implantation during pregnancy. Due to the challenge of various stressors the in vitro embryo developmental potentials are still suboptimal compared to in vivo. To identify the molecular mechanism of these stressors and to improve the existing embryo developmental potentials, the singlet oxygens quencher lycopene was added to the culture media to counterbalance the oxidative damage caused by ROS. In this study, we have patterned connexin like Cx43, Cx37, Cx32 and Cx26 at protein and transcription level during follicular growth, atresia and blastocyst stage by using immunohistochemistry, conventional PCR and RT-qPCR. Lycopene (0.2 μM) significantly (P < 0.05) increased the gap junctional communication protein (connexin) expression of Cx43, Cx37, Cx32, Cx26 as compared to the control group at both transcription and translation level during follicular growth, atresia and blastocyst stage. Lycopene potentiates ovarian folliculogenesis, provides the production of fertilizable oocytes and improved embryo developmental capabilities by increasing gap junctional intercellular communication.

To determine the bioactive compound of domestic cherry tomato, the levels of lycopene, β-carotene, and phenolic compounds were analyzed in three domestic cherry tomato cultivars (Summerking, Qutiquti, and Minchal) using HPLC and LC-MS/MS. The levels of lycopene were 69.40 mg/100 g (Qutiquti), 69.07 mg/100 g (Minichal), and 38.52 mg/100 g (Summerking). The contents of β-carotene were 3.35 mg/100 g (Qutiquti), 2.30 mg/100 g (Summerking), and 2.25 mg/100 g (Minichal). Five phenolic compounds were identified exactly as 3-caffeoylquinic acid, 5-caffeoylquinic acid, quercetin-3-apiosylrutinoside, quercetin-3-rutinoside, and naringenin chalcone from three domestic cherry tomatoes. Five phenolic compounds were identified partially as two isomers of caffeic acid-hexose, caffeoylquinic acid isomer, di-caffeoylquinic acid, and tri-caffeoylquinic acid from three domestic cherry tomatoes. Naringenin chalcone was the most abundant phenolic compound, ranging from 78.2 mg/100 g for Qutiquti to 222.9 mg/100 g for Summerking. High levels of quercetin-3-rutinoside and 5-caffeoylquinic acid were found, ranging 24.3-50.8 mg/100 g and 31.8-47.6 mg/100 g, respectively. These results suggested that domestic cherry tomatoes can be used as bioactive food materials.

천연색소는 색을 발현할 수 있는 물질로서 식품, 화장품, 의약품 등에 사용된다. 천연색소는 동・식물에서 추출하여 만들기 때문에 크기가 균일하지 않으며 특히 적색색소의 경우, 다른 색의 색소 에 비해 친유성이 강해 수용액 상태에서 쉽게 응집이 되는 경향이 있다. 또한 응집에 의한 크기변화로 인해 색의 재현이 어려운 문제점이 있다. 적색색소로 기존에 사용했던 동물성 색소인 코치닐 추출 색 소는 알레르기를 유발하고 식용으로서의 거부감이 있는 등의 문제점으로 인하여 사용이 기피되는 추 세이다. 본 연구에서는 적색의 식물성 색소인 라이코펜 추출물과 치자황색소를 사용하였고 Ball-milling을 이용하여 색소의 크기를 균일하게 만든 후 Asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation(AsFlFFF), Dynamic light scattering(DLS)를 이용하여 크기를 분석하고 색차계를 이용하 여 색을 확인하는 연구를 진행하였다. 실험결과 milling 전에는 색소 입자의 크기가 크고 크기분포가 넓었으나, milling 후에는 크기가 감소하고 크기분포가 좁아짐을 확인하였다. 색차계 측정 결과, milling 시간이 증가함에 따라 밝기, 적색도, 황색도가 높아져서 밝은 적색을 나타내었다.

Lycopene, one of the major carotenoids in human diet, has been suggested as a healthful phytochemical compound. Recently, it is important to quantify lycopene content in the lycopene-containing foods. However, it has been difficult to analyze lycopene content in the lycopene-containing foods using a HPLC because lycopene is not fully extracted during sample pretreatment resulting in less reliable quantitative data. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of solvent on lycopene extraction from lycopene-containing foods for HPLC quantitative analysis. Two different solvents such as 100% acetone and methanol/acetone (1:1) mixture were used to extract lycopenefrom a commercial lycopene-enriched tomato concentrate (containing approximate 72 mg/g lycopene). All extracted samples were sonicated for 10 min, centrifuged, and filtered before injection into HPLC. The analysis of lycopene content was performed by an Ultimate3000 series HPLC system using a Unisol C18 column on UV detector at 450 nm. When the lycopene-enriched tomato concentrate was extracted using 100% acetone and methanol/acetone mixture for HPLC analysis, the lycopene contents were 75.88 and 39.84 (mg/g), respectively. As a result of quantitative analysis, acetone was able to extract lycopene fully from the lycopene-containing foods. The HPLC method established in this study might be useful to quantify lycopene in the lycopene-containing foods which are manufactured in various typessuchasbeverage, powder, tablet, and etc

This was aim to study the changes of components by different parts and maturity of tomato. Tomato include the green pigment chlorophyll, the yellow pigment-carotene. the red pigment lycopene and the other component. These colors of tomatoes are reported to have important functional roles to promote health in human. The main objective of this study was to define changes in the content of the four tomato maturation that is ascorbic acid, chlorophyll, carotene, lycopene. A ascorbic acid contents of tomato fruits was the highest at 50th day. Chlorophyll contents of tomatoes fruits was the highest at 10th days after flowering. α-carotene contained low-quantity while all growth period. β-carotene contained the highest at 50th days after flowering, 1036.97μg. Lycopene contained the highest at 50th days after flowering, 5800μg.

High-quality and high-phytonutrient watermelon fruits have strong market opportunities besides their health related benefits. Hence, investigating quality and nutritional related traits of watermelon genetic resources could provide important baseline data in breeding for increased lycopene content thereby increasing the marketability of watermelon. To this end, we have examined some fruit morphological traits and lycopene content of 105 genetic resources. Seeds, originally obtained from 22+ countries, were obtained from the National Agrobiodiversity Center, Jeonju, South Korea, grown in an experimental field and harvested at a fully mature stage. The size of pistil scar (SPS), the width of stripes (WS), weight of fruit (WF), length of fruit (LF), width of fruit (WIF), the thickness of pericarp (TP), soluble solids content (SSC), fruit shape in longitudinal section, ground color of skin, the intensity of the green color of skin, fruit shape at the apical part, grooving distribution, conspicuousness of stripes, and main color of the flesh were recorded on the field and inside laboratory and the lycopene was measured using spectrophotometric and HPLC methods. Watermelon fruits have shown a diverse morphological characters. Red and pink fleshed fruits dominated in the entire collections. Fruits with higher thickness of rind were found to exhibit less soluble solid content (SSC). Korean origin fruits were characterized by intermediate SSC while the United States of America (USA), Russia (RUS), Tajikistan (TJK), Turkmenistan (TKM), Taiwan (TWN), and Uruguay (URY) originated fruits had the highest SSC. The lycopene content varied between 41.37 and 182.82 ㎍/g, 2.81 and 163.72 ㎍/g, and 3.54 and 255.47 ㎍/g using HPLC, UV-Vis spectrophotometer, and microplate reader spectrophotometer, respectively. Red- and pink-fleshed fruits had the highest levels of lycopene content compared to the yellow- and orange-fleshed. Lycopene content had a significant positive correlation with SSC, however, no correlations were detected between lycopene and other quantitative fruit morphological characters. Our study demonstrated high diversity exists in fruit morphological traits and lycopene content of the germplasm collections which provide beneficial baseline data for a future breeding program and utilization of watermelon germplasm collections in gene banks for the maintenance and improvement of the current levels of production, marketability, and health-related benefit of watermelon fruits.

수박은 토마토에 비하여 라이코핀 함량이 60% 높으며, 라이코핀 고함유 수박 품종개발에 관심이 집중되고 있다. 그러나 라이코핀 함량 분석을 위한 대량 분석 체계가 마련되지 않아 고함유 유전자원의 선발에 어려움이 있었다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 신속하고 간편한 lycopene 함량 분석기술의 개발과, 개발된 기술(microplate법)을 이용하여 라이코핀 고함유 유전자원을 선발하고자 하였다. 그 결과 UV spectrophotometer를 이용한 방법을 개선하여 Microplate법을 개발하였다. Microplate법은 HPTLC를 이용한 방법과 약 97%로 높은 정의 상관을 나타내어 분석의 정확성이 높은 방법임을 확인하였다. 따라서 Microplate법을 이용하여 수박 유전자원, 계통 및 96점을 대상으로 수박 과실의 라이코핀 함량을 분석한 결과 라이코핀 함량이 생체중 1 g 당 3.2∼98.3 μg･g-1의 넓은 변이를 보였다. 선발 유전자원은 시판 대비품종(스피드플러스; 10.3 μg･g-1 FW)에 비하여 4.4∼9.6배 높은 수준이었다. 선발된 자원들은 라이코핀 고함량 품종개발에 이용 될 수 있을 것으로 판단되었다.

In field conditions, the zebra2 (z2) mutant in rice (Oryza sativa) produces leaves with transverse pale-green/yellow stripes. It was recently reported that ZEBRA2 encodes carotenoid isomerase (CRTISO) and that low levels of lutein, an essential carotenoid for non-photochemical quenching, cause leaf variegation in z2 mutants. However, we found that the z2 mutant phenotype was completely suppressed by growth under continuous light (CL; permissive) conditions, with concentrations of chlorophyll, carotenoids and chloroplast proteins at normal levels in z2 mutants under CL. In addition, three types of reactive oxygen species (ROS; superoxide [O2-], hydrogen peroxide [H2O2], and singlet oxygen [1O2]) accumulated to high levels in z2 mutants grown under short-day conditions (SD; alternate 10-h light/14-h dark; restrictive), but do not accumulate under CL conditions. However, the levels of lutein and zeaxanthin in z2 leaves were much lower than normal in both permissive CL and restrictive SD growth conditions, indicating that deficiency of these two carotenoids is not responsible for the leaf variegation phenotype. We found that the CRTISO substrate tetra-cis-lycopene accumulated during the dark periods under SD, but not under CL conditions. Its accumulation was also positively correlated with 1O2 levels generated during the light period, which consequently altered the expression of 1O2-responsive and cell death-related genes in the variegated z2 leaves. Taking these results together, we propose that the z2 leaf variegation can be largely attributed to photoperiodic accumulation of tetra-cis-lycopene and generation of excessive 1O2 under natural day-night conditions.

Lycopene, found in tomatoes and tomato products, has antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory effects. High-mobility-group box 1 (HMGB1) mediates the pro-inflammatory responses in several inflammatory diseases. In this study, the potential roles of lycopene in the HMGB1-mediated pro-inflammatory gene expressions in the primary human-umbilical-vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were investigated. The data showed that HMGB1 upregulated the expressions of monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2)-IIA, and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Lycopene pre-incubation for 6 h decreased the HMGB1-mediated induction of MCP-1, IL-6, sPLA2-IIA, and PGE2. Further study revealed that the inhibitory effects of lycopene on the HMGB-1 induced expression of pro-inflammatory genes were mediated by the inhibition of two important inflammatory cytokines: tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and nuclear factor (NF)-κB. These results suggest that HMGB1 upregulated the expression of pro-inflammatory genes and lycopene inhibited HMGB-1-induced pro-inflammatory genes by inhibiting TNF-α and NF-κB. This finding will serve as an important evidence in the development of a new medicine for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.

This study was carried out to breed and develop high quality and functional nutrient tomato with multi disease resistance as well as a stable growing adaptation for fresh market usage under protected plastic houses cultivation. The materials were used 5 inbred lines and their 6 hybrids of large tomato group, which have been bred and developed from 1999 to 2007 in Division of Plant Resource Department of Chungnam National University. Fruit weight showed hybrid vigor effect that F1 hybrids weighed more than their parent lines, fruit shape formed three type of oblate, deep oblate and globe shape, in firmness and pericarp thickness have got a high significant correlation, inbred DN611 line was measured the most firm fruit with 6.04 mm pericarp thickness. In fruit color at maturity, pink color crossed to red color appeared all red fruit color in the F1 hybrids, it means red skin color is a dominant gene compared to pink skin color is a recessive gene in tomato, while between fruit skin color and shoulder part color showed no any co-relationship. The sugar content and titratable acid of F1 hybrids inherited an intermediate data of their parent lines, the flavor of KP543 inbred line and the hybrid (JB535 x KP543) revealed the better taste with high brix and proper titratable acid content*. In beta carotene content DN611 line showed 2~3 times higher than other materials so that its 3 hybrids contained an increased level of beta carotene, lycopene content was not so much difference among inbred lines and F1 hybrids, of them MD508 contained higher of 8.72 mg and hybrid (JB535 x JA517) had 8.05 mg lycopene content per 100 g fruit, overall pink skin color and red skin color measured a higher lycopene content than yellow and orange skin color at ripe stage. In disease resistance test by PCR marker for Fusarium race2 (I2), Nematode (Mi1), ToMV (Tm22), Cladosporium (Cf9), (JB535 x JA517) hybrid have got multi-resistance with homozygote band in Nematode, ToMV, Cladosporium and heterozygote band in Fusarium race2. Through this breeding program we could select high quality and functional nutrient with multi resistant F1 hybrids and inbred lines in tomato which are two best hybrids (JB535 x MD508), (JB535 x JA517), additionally developed high beta carotene inbred line DN611 and increased the level of lycopene inbred line MD508. These results will be very useful to make a high quality tomato variety continuously.