Abstract
Lycopene is the red-coloured carotenoid predominantly found in tomato fruit and one of the major carotenoids in the diets of North American and Europeans. Interest in lycopene is growing rapidly following the recent publication of its effects as a natural antioxidant and prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancers. Lycopene, a polyene hydrocarbon carotenoid haying 13 double bond, of which 11 are conjugated double bonds in a linear array exhibits a strong antioxidant property almost twice as strong as that of ${\beta}$-carotene. Lycopene has been shown in recent epidemiological and experimental studies to protect against oxidative damage of DNA which plays an important part in development of various cancer. Lycopene also contribute towards reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases by preventing oxidation of low-density lipoprotein(LDL) cholesterol. This review summarize our knowledge and the current understanding of lycopene in human health as well as the results of experiments we conducted. We conducted experiments for investigating the effects of antioxidant in broiler and the possibilities of production of high quality eggs containing lycopene by the dietary lycopene supplementation with synthetic lycopene or tomato paste. The results shows that thiobarbituric acid reaction substances(TBARS) values in process of LDL oxidation in blood serum of broiler were significantly decreased by dietary lycopene and tomato paste. The dietary lycopene supplementation resulted in improved egg yolk color and in decreased the malondialdehyde (MDA) of egg yolk after 4 wk of storage at room temperature significantly(P<0.05). The dietary tomato paste was more effective in the MDA reduction compared to the lycopene(P<0.05). The contents of lycopene in egg yolk of the lycopene supplementation groups were significantly higher than those of the control group.
