Recently, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences northwest characteristics of plant resources chemistry key laboratory researchers in macroporous adsorption resin separation and purification of lycopene research made new progress. The research team using macroporous adsorption resin mixed simulated moving bed technique, screening and optimization of adsorption conditions, tomato red pigment parameters were prepared by macroporous resin, the product of lycopene in purity increased by 30.4 times, the recovery rate reached 66.9%.

Lycopene is a kind of natural edible pigment, nutrient and raw material of medicine. The main source of lycopene is obtained from the residue of tomato or tomato sauce. At present, the main methods of industrial preparation of lycopene are solvent extraction and supercritical fluid extraction. The former has the disadvantages of low residual organic solvent, low extraction rate and low product purity.