Production of a lycopene-enriched fraction from tomato pomace using supercritical carbon dioxide

In recent years there has been a growing interest in functional foods because they may provide beneficialeffects on human health. Moreover, the increasing interest of consumers in functional foods has broughtabout a rise in demand for ingredients obtained using technologies perceived to be natural and safe. In thisstudy, supercritical fluid technology was used in order to obtain lycopene from an extract of dried tomatopomace using sunflower oil and ethanol. After the supercritical fluid fractionation, four fractions werecollected, three separated fraction (SF) from the separator (after 30, 60 and 120 min of fractionation) andone residual fraction (RF) from the bottom of column (after 120 min). The concentration of lycopene wasstudied in the different fractions obtained under different pressures (10 and 30 MPa), CO2flow rates (5and 15 kg h−1), and heights of loading (top and bottom). The quantitative determination of lycopene wasperformed by HPLC coupled with a diode array detector. The effects of the different extraction parameters,as well as their interactions, were investigated using a full factorial design with three factors and twolevels; the optimal conditions were calculated through response surface methodology. A statisticallysignificant difference in lycopene content in the four fractions was obtained.