Carotenoid Extraction from Tomato Using a Green Solvent Resulting from Orange Processing Waste

Here is described a useful and green method for the extraction of lycopene using d-limonene (bio-solvent) a substitute for dichloromethane (petroleum solvent). The described method was achieved in two steps: at first, limonene was obtained from the orange peel through a steam distillation procedure followed by a deterpenation process, in second step, lycopene was extracted using d-limonene as a solvent, instead of dichloromethane. Lycopene extracted from tomato fruit were compared with both conventional petroleum and bio-solvent in terms of qualitative and quantitative determination. No significant difference was obtained between each extracts allowing us to conclude that the proposed method is effective and valuable.