2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
Fresh red ripe tomatoes were purchased from local market, blanched in boiling water for 5–7 min and separated into three different fractions, viz., skin, pulp and seeds manually. The seed fraction was discarded; the pulp and skin fractions were collected in separate glass petriplates and frozen immediately at −20 °C for 24 h. Frozen samples were freeze-dried for 72 h using a Hetto PowerDry LL1500 freeze dryer at a condenser temperature of −90 °C and reduced pressure of 0.7 torr. Dried fractions were crushed into powder, and stored at −18 °C in amber colored air tight glass bottles until lycopene was extracted. All chemicals used were of analytical grade. Fresh cow cream of 45–50% fat content was obtained from the Experimental Dairy of National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India and kept at 8–10 °C in a refrigerator for 12–24 h.