Recovery of lycopene and b-carotene extracted was calculated based on the maximum lycopene and b-carotene extracted with chloroform as solvent in soxhlet apparatus for 15 h. During the extraction, the soxhlet extractor was covered with aluminum foil to prevent oxidation and degradation of the valuable carotenoids. Tomato seed oil was also extracted using soxhlet apparatus with hexane as solvent for 15 h to obtain the maximum amount of oil in tomato seed. The soxhlet extraction was carried out in triplicate for both tomato peel and seed.
2.4. Statistical analysis
To determine the interaction of extraction variables and their effect on the lycopene and b-carotene recovery, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out according to the Excel Statistics 2004 program. The significance level was stated at 95%, with p-value 0.05.