Lycopene extraction from industrial tomato processing waste using emerging technologies, and its application in enriched beverage development

The present study aimed to extract lycopene from the industrial tomato processing waste (peel) using emerging technologies such as power ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), low-temperature microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), pulsed electric field (PEF)-assisted extraction (PAE), combined low-temperature microwave-power ultrasound-assisted extraction (MUAE) and combined ultrasound-pulsed electric field-assisted extraction (UPAE). A green solvent (ethanol: ethyl acetate, 2:3, v/v) was used for the recovery of lycopene and a mass transfer kinetic approach was used to understand the extraction kinetics of various extraction methods. The highest extraction yield was observed for UPAE treatment with the lycopene yield of 3.56% followed by MUAE with 3.49%. UPAE had the highest antioxidant capacity (87.09% DPPH) compared to other methods. Thus, the green solvent and combination UPAE technology are environmentally sustainable techniques and present a good scope for lycopene recovery. Further, the extracted lycopene was entrapped in oil in water emulsion to develop an enriched lemon juice beverage.