Antioxidant activity of tomato lipophilic extracts and interactions between carotenoids and α-tocopherol in synthetic mixtures

Abstract

Abstract In the present study we assayed the antioxidant activity of lipophilic extracts obtained from different tomato varieties. The results showed that cherry tomatoes, characterized by a high carotenoid content, had the highest antioxidant activity. A quantitative analysis of lycopene, β-carotene, lutein and α-tocopherol was also performed and the correlation between the antioxidant content and the antioxidant activity was estimated. The highest correlation coefficient was found for lycopene ( R 2 = 0.9236, P ≤ 0.001). The analysis of two-component mixtures containing α-tocopherol and carotenoids showed that significant synergism occurred for all the combinations which contained α-tocopherol and β-carotene mixed together. The highest synergistic effects were detected for α-tocopherol-lycopene mixtures, which were the most efficient combinations tested in the present study. The analysis of the carotenoid combinations indicated that synergism occurred for lycopene-β-carotene, lycopene-lutein and lutein-β-carotene mixtures. The analysis of four-component mixtures did not show statistically significant synergistic effects.