Extraction of lycopene from tomato with environmentally benign solvents: Box-Behnken design and optimization

The extraction of lycopene from tomato paste using environmentally benign solvent was examined using several kinds of vegetable oil such as coconut oil, olive oil, soybean oil, palm oil, and sunflower oil as the solvent. Coconut oil resulted in the highest yield. A Box-Behnken design of response surface methodology was applied to optimize the process conditions (solvent/material ratio, extraction temperature, and extraction time). A second-order equation was developed to express the lycopene yield as a function of the process variables. Its validity was evaluated by comparing the experimental results and a significant agreement was achieved. The optimum conditions were a solvent/material ratio of 50:1, temperature of 45 degrees C, and extraction time of 45 min, which achieved a maximum lycopene yield about 80%.