Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of lycopene from industrial tomato waste

Abstract

Cultivation of tomatos is an important agro-economic activity in the European Union (EU). Tomato processing industry entails the generation of large volumes of organic waste in the form of tomato seeds and skin. The tomato waste obtained from the manufacture of tomato juice was collected from "Orhei-Vit" JSC, Orhei, Republic of Moldova. Initially, tomato waste was dried from an initial humidity of 80.0% to a final moisture content of 6.5%. In order to increase the contact surface with carbon dioxide, the tomato waste was milled. Using the full factorial orthogonal experimental design method, was created the planning matrix in real variables, obtaining 15 extraction regimes by varying the parameters: temperature (36–73 °C), pressure (18–42 MPa) and time (24–96 min). Under laboratory conditions, samples of CO2 extracts from tomato waste were obtained at different extraction parameters. The regression equation allowed the optimization of the response using the gradient ascension method, thus establishing the optimal extraction parameters of the bioactive compound – lycopene.