Kinetics of the Growth and the Degradation of Lycopene and Vitamin C in Tomato slurry

The present work focuses on the kinetics of both growth and degradation of lycopene and Vitamin C in tomato ( Solanum Peruvianum L) during the various cooking methods - Simple boiling, steaming, frying, microwave and pressure cooking. In our study, the effect of oxidation and light were negligible by covering the bowl containing tomato slurry with aluminium foil and the samples in triplicate were pulled out after every fixed interval of time set different for all cooking methods. The growth and degradation of lycopene concentration were found to obey zeroth order and first order kinetics while the degradation of Vitamic C obeys first order kinetics. The maximum lycopene extraction in all cooking methods is nearly same irrespective of different growth reaction rate values. The reaction rate constant (during growth) is larger than that for lycopene degradation, so lycopene degradation is seen after growth of lycopene stops. Degradation of lycopene is mainly through isomerization. Chemical effect of oil acts synergistically to heating effect during frying. It is found that Vitamin C is not associated with breaking of tomato tissue but only degrades in all cooking methods following first order kinetics.