The effect of the lenght of storage on the amount of lycopene in the fruits of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.)

• Main Author: Anton Uher
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Mendel University Press 2008-01-01
• Series: Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis
• Subjects: tomato (<i>Lycopersicon esculentum</i> L.); lycopene; antioxidant; thermic treatment; storage length
• Online Access: https://acta.mendelu.cz/56/2/0245/

We focused on tomatoes for industrial processing due to its economical importance for its lycopene content. The objective of our research is to find the variation of lycopene content in tomato fruits depending upon the length of after harvest storage and thermic treatment, which is inevitable when being industrialy processed. From the point of view of nutritional qualities the most relevant contentual substance of tomatos are carotenoids, included lycopene.At average for tree following experimental years we learnt significant differences regarding the content of lycopene and the length of storage of tomato fruits. Immediately after the harvest and proccesing tomato fruits contained, at average for tree years, 103.24 mg of lycopene. After 14 days the content of lycopene declined to 46.76 mg . kg−1 of fresh mass. After 30 days the average value dropped to 29.26 mg . kg−1. This fact comfirms that boiling respectively thermic treatment increases the content of lycopene in tomato fruits, particulary in our experiment to the value 83.33 mg . kg−1. At varieties Ladislav, Peto 86, Prémium, Salus the content of lycopene has even risen in comparison with its content up to 48 hours after the harvest. Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) belongs to the most signifficant vegetable varieties either for its exploitation in processing industry as well as for its nutritional value with extraordinary beneficial effect for human organism.Although the content of lycopene is genetically stable attribute, its content in our experiment ranged from 45.39 mg . kg−1 (Prémium variety) to 77.98 mg . kg−1 (Zámčan variety), which are significant differences.