Lycopene enriched extra virgin olive oil: Biological activities and assessment of security profile on cells

The production of tomato products is massive in Italy resulting in a huge amount of tomato waste as seeds, peels and stems. The aim of our work is to re-utilize these matrices through the extraction of carotenoids, especially lycopene to obtain enriched extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). The extraction has been obtained by ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) technique using directly extra virgin olive oil as extraction solvent, due to its lipophilic nature. The quantification of lycopene has been done through HPLC-DAD, resulting in a good concentration of lycopene per gram of oil (0.9 mg/g oil). Then the lycopene enriched EVOO was evaluated in vitro to determine its antioxidant and enzyme inhibitory activity in comparison with the EVOO itself. These data were associated to the cytotoxicity assays and in vivo histological bioassays, aiming to highlight its safe and healthy profile on human normal cells.