2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29
Each fruit, as well as vegetables, is colored in some color. This is due to the substances contained in it. Red fruits and vegetables contain lycopene, which gives different saturated colors to the products.
What are the beneficial properties of lycopene for our body?
Useful properties of lycopene
Lycopene is from the family of carotenoids and since its composition is of hydrogen and oxygen, we can say that it is also carotene.
Carotenes have strong antioxidant properties and protect the body from oxidative stress, which causes rapid skin aging and the appearance of brown spots known as senile. It also protects against cancer, heart disease, muscle degeneration and more.
Lycopene is very important for increasing the body's endurance against any disease.
Where does lycopene contain the most?
Lycopene is found in the highest amounts in tomatoes when it comes to widely used products for consumption. It is also found in other red fruits and vegetables such as watermelon, red grapefruit, guava, goji berry and rose hips, but lycopene is also found in other fruits and vegetables that do not have a red color such as olives, asparagus and others.
Hook fruit - origin and useful ingredients
The richest in lycopene, however, is the fruit of Momordica cochinchinensis, which is also known by the name hook.
His homeland is Southeast Asia. It grows in the warmer parts of the continent, its birthplace is considered to be Vietnam. This exotic and almost completely unknown to Europeans fruit is as small as a melon, and the ripe fruit is colored dark orange. The bark is prickly and peels before consumption.
The inside is oily bags in dark red, which have a slightly sweet taste. They liken it to something between a cucumber and a melon with a slightly astringent carrot flavor. Its seeds can be likened to walnuts in taste.
The fruit hook is harvested only two months a year in its homeland of Vietnam and is quite unknown outside the country due to export restrictions. However, it contains almost 70 times more lycopenethan in tomatoes. It also contains beta carotene in large quantities, as well as a protein that inhibits tumor growth.
In Vietnam hook is used in cooking for preparing a traditional New Year's dish, as well as in wedding dishes.
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Foods That Contain Lycopene Other Than Tomatoes
As a plant pigment lycopene has pronounced antioxidant properties. It slows down the aging of cells by actively counteracting the development of coronary heart disease. It is found in large enough quantities in many red vegetables and fruits.
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