Antioxidant effects of lycopene and its impact on human health

ObjectiveTo assess antioxidant effects of lycopene and its impact on human health.MethodsA tatal of 120 healthy volunteers were divided into test group and control group randomly according to serum content of malondialdehyde(MDA).Subjects in test group were orally given lycopene consecutively for 90 days.Contents of MDA,activities of superoxide dismutase(SOD)and glutathione peroxidase(GSH-Px),and indexes of safety were determined at 90th day of the trial.ResultsIn the test group,MDA content was 4.06 nmoL/mL before feeding and 3.61 nmoL/mL after feeding,with a decrease rate of 11.03%.The SOD activity was 90.7 U/mL before feeding and 96.7 U/mL after feeding,with an increase rate of 6.80%.The GSH-Px activity was 122.6 NU/mL before feeding and 136.9 NU/mL after feeding,with an increase rate of 11.74%.The indexes of test group were all significantly different from those of the control group(P<0.01 for all).All safety indexes were in normal range.ConclusionLycopene could enhance antioxidative function and has no toxic effect observed in human body.