Lycopene, polyphenols and antioxidant activities of three characteristic tomato cultivars subjected to two drying methods

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of freeze drying and oven drying on appearance, chemical components and antioxidant activities of three cultivars of tomatoes. This study showed cultivar 18,131 would provide the highest phenolic contents and ABTS radical scavenging activity, and cultivar 1862 provide the highest lycopene content after oven drying. On the basis of appearance and contents of polyphenols, freeze drying showed better results. However, oven drying was found superior in decreasing degradation of lycopene. The effects of drying on the polyphenol contents varied depending on the cultivars. In addition, there is no significant difference of antioxidant activities between freeze dried and oven dried tomatoes. These results also demonstrated that freeze drying is superior in maintaining physical structure and phenolic contents of tomato slices. However, oven drying is a viable option for drying tomatoes considering both costing and contents of lycopene.