Lycopene: a carotenoid, this is the key antioxidant in tomato, Lycopersicon esculentum, and responsible for the many health benefits of tomato. Tomato eaters have lower risk of several types of cancer. Lycopene traps singlet oxygen, making it a great antioxidant. At physiological concentrations it inhibits cell growth of some human cancers without toxic effects on normal cells, apparently by upregulating a gene, connexin 43, that restores cells to normal proliferation. The combination of Lycopene and Lutein synergistically interact as antioxidants, and this may relate to specific positioning of different carotenoids in membranes.