**Biochemical Parameters in Tomato Fruits from Different Cultivars as Functional Foods for Agricultural, Industrial, and Pharmaceutical Uses**

Pranas Viskelis, Audrius Radzevicius, Dalia Urbonaviciene, Jonas Viskelis, Rasa Karkleliene and Ceslovas Bobinas

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/60873

#### **Abstract**

Tomato and tomato based products are an important agricultural production worldwide. More than 80 % of grown tomatoes in the worldwide are processing in the products such as tomato juice, paste, puree, catsup, sauce, and salsa. Tomato fruit is rich in phytochemicals and vitamins. Tomato nutritional value, color, fruit and flavor of their products depends mainly on lycopene, β-carotene, ascorbic acid and sugars and their ratio in fruits. Epidemiological studies and the results associated with the consumption of tomato products against the prevention of chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, confirming the tomato products as a functional food, and show that lycopene and β-carotene acts as an antioxidant. In order to increase the amount of these elements in tomato fruit, it is important to evaluate and investigate tomato genotypes influence to the carotenoids accumulation. Studies have confirmed that the carotenoid content in tomato fruits is determined by genotypic characteristics. In this work the main attention will be focused on from the biochemical and physical properties in tomato of different varieties, chemical and physical properties, to functional properties of supercritical fluid extraction of lycopene from tomato processing by products supercritical fluid tomato extracts.

**Keywords:** biochemical composition, physical properties, phytochemicals, nondes‐ tructive analysis, supercritical fluid extraction

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