Chinese scientists find ways to turn carbon dioxide into powerful antioxidant lycopene

Researchers develop technology to mirror biological processes to produce compound that can help protect against heart disease and cancer

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Yang Jianming, who led the research team at Qingdao Agricultural University, says their breakthrough has the advantage of being a simple, low-cost and environmentally friendly way of producing lycopene. Photo: Handout

Published: 10:00am, 23 Sep 2024

A group of Chinese scientists has devised a technology to capture carbon dioxide that they hope can be used to convert the gas into lycopene, a powerful antioxidant.

The compound naturally gives foods such as tomatoes, watermelons and peppers their pink or red colour. It is thought to be good for bone health and may help protect against heart disease, certain types of cancer and high blood sugar.

Lycopene is widely used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food industries but the existing production methods have various drawbacks.

For example, extracting it from natural plants is time consuming, uses many raw materials and the resulting product has impurities. Meanwhile chemical synthesis is a laborious and demanding process.

The team at Qingdao Agricultural University in Shandong province developed a synthetic biology technology that aims to get round these problems.

Professor Yang Jianming, the team leader, decided to circumvent these headaches by using a biological method known as carbon fixation technology – the process by which organisms convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds, such as in plant photosynthesis.

The technology uses microorganisms as bioreactors to produce chemicals, materials or medicines, and is capable of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.