Table 1.

Limitations of different vehicles used for lycopene cell delivery (adapted from Lin et al. [27]).

Vehicle	Limitations	References
Tetrahydrofuran (THF)	Rapid oxidation in media, leading to lycopene instability and cytotoxicity	[17, 20, 22, 28–32]
Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)	Reduced solvent capacity for carotenoids (0.01 mg/mL for lycopene)	[20, 33–35]
Tween	Possible oxidation of carotenoids, after solvent drying and filtration	[31]
Micelles	Low carotenoid stabilization and increased cytotoxicity	[20, 27, 36]
Water-dispersible beadlets	Low toxicity, but also low cellular uptake, depends on chemicals that interfere in assays (e.g., hexane and chloroform)	[29, 37, 38]