Antimicrobial effects and applications of lycopene

Lycopene is a red, bioactive compound that occurs naturally in many fruits, including tomato, pink grapefruit, and watermelon. Lycopene has been established to exert clear benefits on human health, such as antioxidant and anticancer activity. Clinical trials of direct therapeutic applications of lycopene are progressing, and the beneficial effects of lycopene in the treatment of eye disease, male infertility, inflammation, and osteoporosis have been reported. Recently, the antimicrobial effects of lycopene and the mode of action against various pathogenic microorganisms were also demonstrated. Lycopene disturbs the microbial cell, which leads to a decrease in the membrane potential and the destruction of membrane integrity. In addition, lycopene was shown to induce unicellular apoptotic cell death in Escherichia coli and Candida albicans cells through the exhibition of various apoptotic hallmarks. As there are almost no adverse effects of lycopene in addition to its effective antimicrobial properties, we propose that it may be a potent antimicrobial agent, which is able to mitigate severe microbial infection.