Efficient E/Z conversion of (all-E)-lycopene to Z-isomers with a high proportion of (5Z)-lycopene by food grade plant extracts

The conversion of lycopene from natural sources, mainly in all trans configurations, to cis configuration means a significant increase in bioavailability. However, the existing isomerization methods have problems with residual organic solvents, which limits the use of products. such as metal ion catalysis, electrocatalysis, and iodine-doped titanium dioxide (I-TiO2) catalysis. In this paper, the effects of common plant extracts on lycopene isomerization and its stability were investigated. Among them, sulforaphane and allicin showed significant catalytic effects, with sulforaphane being the most effective. Therefore, Broccoli sprouts were selected as a food component to investigate the catalytic isomerization of lycopene. After the optimization of pretreatment, the final content of sulforaphane was 5.81 mg/g. The cis-proportion of lycopene was elevated from 5% in the blank group to more than 60% when the treated broccoli sprout paste was added to the tomato paste. Also, the bioavailability of lycopene increased significantly with the increase in cis proportion. Compared with other isomerization methods, the method studied in this paper does not require any organic reagents and only uses food-grade materials such as allicin, sulforaphane, and broccoli sprouts to catalyze the cis-trans isomerization of lycopene.