Utilization of watermelon pulp for lycopene extraction by response surface methodology

•Watermelon pulp contains concentrated amount of lycopene (59.95 mg/100 g).•The ratio of hexane:acetone:ethanol (2:1:1) was used for extraction of lycopene.•S/m ratio, number of extractions, temperature and time were optimized using RSM.•The optimum conditions were 10:1 v/w, four extractions, 50 °C and 16 min.

Lycopene extraction was optimized from watermelon pulp using response surface methodology using independent variables:solvent/meal ratio (4:1-12:1 v/w), number of extractions (1-5), temperature (20-60 °C) and extraction time (4-20 min). Watermelon pulp had 59.95 mg lycopene/100 g on fresh weight basis. The experimental values of lycopene with selected combinations of independent variables were 8.20-59.17 mg/100 g on fresh weight basis. The second order model obtained revealed a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.986, the standard error of 0.04, the root mean square error of 0.02 and a scattered plot between experimental and predicted values. The optimum solvent/meal ratio, number of extractions, temperature and extraction time were 10:1 v/w, four, 50 °C and 16 min respectively. The optimum conditions of lycopene extraction were confirmed experimentally.