Ultrasound assisted lycopene extraction from tomato skin waste by volatile natural deep eutectic solvent
Lorenza Marinaccio, Gökhan Zengin, Onur Bender, Angelo Cichelli, Ettore Novellino, Azzurra Stefanucci, Adriano Mollica
Abstract
In this work, a completely green method was applied for the extraction of lycopene from tomato skins waste. The combination of the ultrasound-assisted technique (UAE) and the use of volatile natural deep eutectic solvent (VNADES) menthol: thymol 1:1 allowed to obtain a green extraction process. Lycopene content was assessed by HPLC-DAD and compared with the lycopene extraction yields obtained using α-pinene and n-hexane as extraction solvents. The evaporation of the DES menthol:thymol was conducted using a Vacuum Vortex Evaporator. The highest concentration of extracted lycopene was obtained with n-hexane (735.9 mg/g of dried extract (DE)) compared to terpene-based solvents; 468.1 mg/g and 358.7-484.2 mg/g DE were recovered from α-pinene and DES menthol/thymol as azeotropic mixture and as such, respectively.