Lycopene: Recent Developments in Stabilization Through Encapsulation

Due to its unique chemical structure, lycopene may induce multiple health benefits as a natural antioxidant. However, the biological properties of lycopene and, therefore, its wide applications in foods and feed, food supplements, pharmaceutics and cosmetics are limited due to its specific hydrophobic nature and low chemical stability. The specific biological and physicochemical characteristics are due to the presence of 11 conjugated double bonds, which highlights it among the >700 carotenoids discovered, being valued as the most efficient singlet oxygen quencher. However, due to its highly unsaturated hydrocarbon structure, lycopene is highly susceptible to chemical degradation when exposed to high temperatures, oxygen, and light, leading to color fading and the loss of bioactive properties. The stability, bioaccessibility and bioavailability of lycopene may be improved by using encapsulation, such as spray and freeze-drying, emulsions, liposomes, complex coacervation, electrospinning, etc. The main purpose of this study was to highlight the main characteristics of lycopene, the main sources, the principle and key factors of encapsulation, thus covering the most used and effective stabilization methods described in the literature. An important issue covered by this work is related to the bioaccessibility and bioavailability of different isomers of lycopene, with the main purpose of clarifying the mechanism of digestion.