It is a natural red pigment (carotenoid) found in plants. Lycopene is an antioxidant and has properties that protect the body from cardiovascular disease and cancer (especially prostate, breast, pancreatic and colon cancers).
Although a diet rich in tomatoes provides large amounts of lycopene, there are varieties with several times more bioavailability of this compound than the classic tomato.
According to a study published in 2015, the best source of well-absorbed lycopene is the yellow variety of tomato. This is due to a special form of the compound in them, known as cis-lycopene, which is about 8.5 times more bioavailable than the lycopene found in red tomatoes.
This is due to the simple fact that the cis-lycopene content in red tomatoes is only 10%, while it is as high as 94% in the yellow variety.