Carotenoid Contents in Different Coloured Tomato Varieties By HPLC

With red,purple,purplish red,brown,yellow,green tomatos as test material,the dynamic changes of lycopene,β-carotene and xanthin contents during the fruit ripening course were determined by HPLC external standard method.The results show that the lycopene,β-carotene and xanthin content were different in different types during the development of tomato fruit.Lycopene contents in red color fruit was highest among the other five tested varieties,while the content of yellow color fruit was significantly lower than others.β-carotene and xanthin contents in yellow and green color fruit was higher than the other color fruit.In the ripening development of tomato fruit,the lycopene content was increased gradually.The development period from half-ripe to full-ripe is the key stage for lycopene synthesis.The β-carotene and xanthin contents were decreased firstly and then increased,and the three carotenoids content achieved the highest when the completely ripe fruit.