Study on lycopene content change of tomato seed oil during refining

Pressed tomato seed oil was used as the raw material to refine.The losses of lycopene content in oil during refining were measured by spectrophotometry.Result showed that:lycopene content decreased during refining, and decrease rate in bleaching > neutralization > washing > deodorization.These losses of lycopene content during neutralization and bleaching were 17.88% and 75.39%.During neutralization, while the alkaline concentration raised from 8.5% to 11.5%, the residual lycopene decreased.During bleaching, lycopene losses increased while the amount of clay increased or temperature rose.There was no significant change for residual lycopene after 5min when bleaching temperature was 100℃ and the usage of clay was 2%, which meaned the lycopene was removed effectively.