Solubility and stability of lycopene are the main problems in
extracting lycopene from tomato by-products. Lycopene is insoluble
in water but soluble in highly toxic organic solvents such as benzene,
chloroform, and dichloromethane; it also decomposes easily during
storage. Development of the supercritical fluid extraction (SFE)
method is one way scientists have worked to circumvent these
problems.