BEER SHEVA, Israel—Results from a recent focused on lycopene concentration in the furrowed and wrinkled foreheads of 20 subjects between 40 and 50 years old, demonstrated high levels of antioxidants in the skin may be correlated to lower levels of skin roughness (Eur J Pharm Biopharm. 2008 Aug;69(3):943-7).
In a first step, the age of the volunteers was correlated to their skin roughness; no significant correlation was found. In a second step, a significant correlation was obtained between the skin roughness and the lycopene concentration (R=0.843).
“The researchers stated ‘lycopene can be assumed to represent an efficient protection system against the negative action of the free radicals in the skin,’ and this is highly encouraging because it provides additional support for Lyc-O-Mato® tomato lycopene as a skin protecting ingredient for the fast growing nutricosmetics market,” explained Zohar Nir, V.P. of new product development and scientific affairs, for LycoRed Ltd.