Tomato powder beats isolated lycopene in study, but expert questions scope of conclusions A recent study has found that whole tomato powder does better than the extracted carotenoid lycopene in quelling post exercise inflammation. But an expert cautions that the study’s small scale makes drawing large conclusions difficult. The study drives at the heart of one of the debates in the natural products industry, that being, is a pharmaceutical reductionist approach the correct one? Or are health promoting fractions of foods and herbs best offered in their ‘whole food’ matrices? Support for ‘entourage’ effects Some information points to the entourage effect of natural matrices. In the case of guayusa, the caffeine in this Amazonian rainforest botanical seems to perform differently than does caffeine by itself. The botanical is reputed to boost concentration and focus without causing the jitters some consumers report with caffeine use. The speculation on the part of at least one supplier is that