Nanoencapsulation of Lycopene from Tomato Waste Using Chitosan and Alginate for Enhanced Stability and Antioxidant Activity

Post-harvest and oversupply lead to significant tomato waste, which has potential for nutraceutical applications due to its rich antioxidant content.Lycopene, a light and heatsensitive antioxidant found in tomatoes, loses its biological activity when degraded.This problem can be addressed by encapsulation using chitosan and alginate.This study aimed to extract and encapsulate lycopene from tomato waste to develop a cost-effective nutraceutical product.The lycopene content in dried tomato was 1.01±0.19mg/g.Treatments varied in the amount of lycopene added to the alginate solution (T1: 0.5mg, T2: 1.0mg, T3: 1.5mg).Treatment 3 exhibited the highest encapsulation efficiency (86.85±0.53%)and radical scavenging activity (2.51±0.02%).The particle size of the nanocapsules ranged from 148.7±8.7nm to 152.8±9.7nm.Lycopene-loaded nanocapsules showed FTIR peaks corresponding to the major functional groups of chitosan and alginate.SEM images revealed that Treatment 3 nanocapsules were clustered and quasispherical.Lycopene-loaded nanocapsules hold promise for applications in the nutraceutical industry as a cost-effective antioxidant with increased bioavailability and adsorption due to their smaller size.