Epidemiological data have shown a link between dietary intake of tomatoes and tomato products(rich in carotenoids) and a decreased risk of chronic diseases. The carotenoid profile in tomato productsdepends on tomato variety as well as the thermal conditions used in processing. The final carotenoidprofile may affect the bioaccessibility and bioavailability of these biomolecules. Therefore, nondestructive, reliable methods are needed to characterize the structural and stereochemical variation ofcarotenoids. CDCl
3 rapid extraction was used to extract carotenoids from tomato juice as an alternativerapid procedure that minimizes solvents and time consumption prior to NMR analysis. The profile ofthese biomolecules was characterized by application of high-resolution multidimensional NMRtechniques using a cryogenic probe. The combination of homonuclear and heteronuclear two-dimensional NMR techniques served to identify (
all-
E)-, (5
Z)-, (9
Z)-, and (13
Z)-lycopene isomersand other carotenoids such as (
all-
E)-
-carotene and (15
Z)-phytoene dissolved in the extracted lipidmixture. The use of one-dimensional NMR enabled the rapid identification of lycopene isomers, therebyminimizing further isomerization of (
all-
E)-lycopene as compared to HPLC data. On the basis of theassignments accomplished, the carotenoid profile of typical tomato juice was successfully determinedwith minimal purification procedures.