Mixture approach for optimizing lycopene extraction from tomato and tomato products.

A simple mixture process design based on the comparison of both quadratic and special cubic models and involving three mixture components (hexane/acetone/ethanol) as a solution for extracting lycopene from raw tomato, tomato sauce, and tomato paste was used to confirm the hypothesis that lycopene extraction rates are a function of the solvent used during the extraction process. Conventional criteria (p </= 0.15) were used to identify influencing effects in each model. Although the major component used in lycopene extraction was hexane, there was a positive secondary synergistic interaction of hexane with ethanol (all sample types) and with acetone (tomato paste samples); this suggests that a mixture including all three components is essential for optimizing the extraction process. The partial special cubic model yielded three stationary points, indicating the concentrations of hexane, acetone, and ethanol required to optimize lycopene extraction in raw tomato, tomato sauce, and paste.