Increased carotenoid bioavailability from a unique, cislycopene containing tangerine-type tomato

Red tomatoes accumulate lycopene (LYC) in the trans configuration while orange‐colored tangerine tomatoes accumulate LYC in cis forms. Previous work suggests cis ‐LYC may be more bioavailable compared to all‐ trans . We hypothesized that LYC will be more bioavailable from tangerine tomato juice compared to dose‐matched red juice. A human clinical trial (n=12) was performed with a randomized, cross‐over design to identify post‐prandial carotenoids in triglyceride rich lipoprotein (TRL) fraction of plasma. Following a two week low LYC diet, healthy subjects consumed tangerine or red tomato juice, followed by blood collection for 12 hours. Both juices provided 10 mg of total LYC; the tangerine juice had 94% cis ‐LYC while the red juice had 10% cis ‐LYC. We identified and quantified LYC, phytoene, phytofluene, ζ‐carotene and neurosporene from TRLs using high performance liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry. Increased area under the curve LYC was observed in subjects consuming tangerine compared to red tomato juice. These findings confirm enhanced bioavailability of cis ‐LYC from tomatoes and provide rationale to explore tangerine tomatoes to deliver LYC in future studies of biological impact.