In Vivo Bioavailability of Lycopene from Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thunb) Coloring

Diet containing watermelon coloring (5, 20, 35 and 50 mg lycopene/100g) was fed to albino rats to study in-vivo bioavailability of lycopene. The rats were fed with lycopene enriched test diets for seven days of treatment period along with control diet during pre and post treatment periods of seven days each. The body weight of each group of albino rats significantly increased during feeding trial which showed that rats were in healthy condition during the treatment. The daily lycopene intake from test diets varied from 0.03 to 0.51 mg during treatment period of seven days which decreased to 0.02-0.07 mg during post-treatment period with control diet. The lycopene absorbed by different groups of rats varied from 0.22 to 3.74 mg/kg body weight of rat during treatment period and 0.15-0.67 mg/kg body weight of rat during post-treatment periods. Lycopene bioavailability increased proportionately with the lycopene content of test diet.