Lycopene (LYC), a natural compound responsible for the red color of some fruits like pink grapefruit, red guava, watermelon, papaya and, mainly, present in tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum). LYC has been extensively studied because of its various pharmacological properties such as antioxidant, cardioprotective, hypocholesterolemic, antineophasic, photoprotection, antidiabetic and antimicrobial activity. However, LYC uses in therapy is limited due to its insolubility in aqueous solvents, resulting in low bioavailability and stability. In order to overcome these drawbacks, it is essential to use of organic nanocarriers for LYC controlled release. Up to now, the description of LYC-loaded organic nanocarriers are scarce, mainly related to organic nanosystems based on lipid nanostructures such as nanoemulsions (NE), liposomes (LP), niosomes (NI), nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) and solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN). Taking into account the development of new formulations, is indispensable the use of sensitive and suitable analytical methods previously validated. Among the analytical methods described here, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) stands out due to its good accuracy, precision and desirable detection limit. In this review, we highlights the main biological and physicochemical properties of LYC, as well as LYC-based organic nanocarriers for controlled drug delivery and the analytical methods described in literature to determine LYC in any kind of matrix.

番茄红素（LYC）是一种天然化合物，可导致某些水果（如粉红色的葡萄柚，红番石榴，西瓜，木瓜）变红，并且主要存在于番茄中（茄子（Solanum lycopersicum））。LYC由于其多种药理特性，例如抗氧化剂，心脏保护剂，降血脂药，抗肿瘤药，光保护剂，抗糖尿病药和抗微生物活性而被广泛研究。然而，由于LYC在水溶剂中的不溶性，其在治疗中的用途受到限制，导致低的生物利用度和稳定性。为了克服这些缺点，必须使用有机纳米载体进行LYC控制释放。到目前为止，对LYC负载的有机纳米载体的描述很少，主要涉及基于脂质纳米结构的有机纳米系统，例如纳米乳液（NE），脂质体（LP），脂质体（NI），纳米结构脂质载体（NLC）和固体脂质纳米粒子（SLN）。考虑到新配方的开发，使用先前已验证的灵敏且合适的分析方法是必不可少的。在这里描述的分析方法中，高效液相色谱（HPLC）由于其良好的准确性，精密度和理想的检测限而脱颖而出。在这篇综述中，我们重点介绍了LYC的主要生物学和理化性质，以及用于控制药物递送的基于LYC的有机纳米载体，以及文献中描述的用于确定任何类型基质中LYC的分析方法。