ABSTRACT
Tomatoes, watermelons, pink grapefruits, papaya, rosehip, and berries contain lycopene. The role of tomatoes in medicine can be summarized as follows:
• Tomato-based food products such as tomato paste, tomato sauce, and tomato-based soups are rich in
carotenoid compounds
and are frequently consumed in the U.S. Foods such as these, which are high in carotenoid content, are of interest because of the demonstrated association between consumption of fruits and vegetables and reduced risk of lung and other epithelial cancers in humans. Unlike other fruits and vegetables where nutritional content such as vitamin C is diminished upon cooking, processing of tomatoes increases the concentration of bioavailable lycopene. Thus, processed tomato products such as tomato juice, soup, sauce, and ketchup contain the highest concentrations of lycopene. There is evidence that frequent intake of such products is associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer (especially prostate cancer), diabetes, osteoporosis, and even male infertility.
