Toxicity Profile for Lycopene (1999)

Abstract

Lycopene is a normal constituent of the human diet and epidemiological studies suggest that it may have a protective effect against various cancers. It had a low acute oral toxicity in mice. Studies involving repeated oral administration did not identify any sites of toxic attack in rats or mice; in a dog, there was accumulation of lycopene and vitamin A in the liver, and excess vitamin A in the kidneys. Skin pigmentation and coloured fatty deposits in the liver were seen in a person who ingested high dietary levels of lycopene daily over a period of years; bile excretion by the liver was depressed. No clear reproductive effects were revealed in a limited oral study in rats. There was no evidence of chromosome or DNA damage in the white blood cells of eight individuals given multiple oral doses, in the bone marrow cells of two mice given a single oral dose, or in human cells treated in culture. Lycopene was not mutagenic in limited Ames bacterial assays.