Supercritical CO2 extraction of lycopene from tomato peels by
product was conducted with the use of indigenous oil from tomato
seed obtained along with tomato peels. This work emphasizes that
the by-products used for raw material are more meaningfully than
that reported by other researchers who used different vegetable
oil. The optimum operating conditions for lycopene extraction
was a temperature of 90 C, pressure of 40 MPa, a particle size of
1.05 ± 0.10 mm, and ratio of tomato peel to seed of 37/63. Under
these conditions, 56% of lycopene could be extracted, whereas
44% of the lycopene remained both in the pipeline and the solid
matrix. The presence of fatty acid content in the tomato seed oil
improved recovery of lycopene extracted from 18% to 56%.