Physicochemical Measurements. Lycopene content was determined according to the reduced volumes of organic solvents method of Fish et al. (22). About 0.6 g of unfiltered whole tomato puree was weighed precisely, added to a 40 mL amber vial containing 5 mL of acetone with 0.05% butylated hydroxytoluene, 5 mL of ethanol, and 10 mL of hexane. The mixture was put on an orbital shaker at 180 rpm for 15 min. Three milliliters of water was then added, prior to an additional 5 min on the shaker. Afterward, the vial was left in an upright position at room temperature for 5 min to allow for phase separation. The upper phase (hexane) was sampled to obtain an absorbance reading at 503 nm using a Varian Cary 500. The following relationship was then used for estimation of lycopene content: lycopene (mg/kg) ) (A503 × 31.2) ÷ quantity of tissue used (22).