the source of lycopene can be either contained in tomato oleoresin , lycdpene extracted from tomato , or synthetic lycopene . the source of the garlic can be selected from the group consisting of whole garlic , allicin , garlic powder , non - polar solvent extracts of fresh crushed garlic , aged deodorized garlic extract , and enisxes of these . a preferred source is garlic powder containing between 0 . 2 % to 2 . 0 % allicin and preferably containing 0 . 5 % to 1 . 2 % allicin . the garlic and lycopene can be present in relative parts by weight of 10 , 000 to 1 to 1 to 10 , 000 ; preferably 500 to 1 to 1 to 500 , and most preferably 100 to 1 to 1 to 100 . the garlic and lycopene can be the only ingredients present . however , it is sometimes preferred to mix in compounds such as dietary components , additives , exciprients , bonding agents , coatings , preservatives , and mixtures of these . the garlic lycopene mixture may be contained in a dosage form selected from the group consisting of tablets , caplets , vegecaps , and hard shell gelatin capsules . the mixture of garlic and lycopene has been found useful in preparing pharmaceutical or dietary compositions for arresting the progression of atherosclerosis , as a hypercholesterolemic therapeutic agent , and a method for synergistically blocking the oxidation of ldl in serum . ldl was separated from human plasma by discontinuous density gradient ultracentrifugation and dialyzed against saline : edta ( 1 mm ). before oxidation ldl was diluted in pbs to 100 ug protein / ml , and dialyzed overnight against pbs at 4 ° c . ldl was oxidized by a metal ion dependent mechanism , by incubation for 24 hours at 37 ° c . with 5 um cuso 4 freshly prepared as well as by determination of the thiobarbituric acid reactive substance ( tbars ). ldl was also oxidized in a metal ions independent system by incubaiton at 37 ° c . with a radical generating compound , 2 - 2 azobis , 2 - aminidinopropane hydrochloride ( aaph , 5mm ). lycopene , as well as tomato oleoresin containing 5 % lycopene , were dissolved in tetrahydrofuran ( thf ), 0 . 5 mg / ml stock solution for pure lycopene , and 10 mg / ml stock solution for the oleoresin . garlic powder was extracted with water , dried , and resolubilized in water at a concentration of 0 . 25 mg of allicin equivalentsml for a stock solution . the synergistic effects of a combination of garlic and lycopene on copper ions - induced ldl oxidation was studied . details are shown in table 1 , affording the individual components of the abbott equation used to calculate synergism as follows : a + b   ( ab 100 ) = expected   control and synergism is proven if the ratio of i f i e following the method of experiment 1 , the synergistic effect of a combination of garlic and lycopene as in experiment 1 ; but using tomato oleoresin was run . results are shown in table 1 and fig3 and 4 . following the method of example 1 , the synergistic effect of a mixture of garlic and tomato oleoresin on aaph - induced ldl oxidation was checked . the kinetic study of the effect of the mixture of experiment 1 was run to determine the prolonged log time . details , shown in fig5 found a retardation of 200 minutes for the mixture compared with 90 minutes for garlic alone . a similar kinetic study of the mixture of experiment 2 was also run ; and found the same log time for the mixture . details are shown in fig6 .
the present invention provides a synergistic pharmaceutical or dietary composition containing lycopene and garlic . the present invention also provides an improved method to block the oxidation of ldl in order to arrest the process of therapeutic agent and a method for the prevention or treatment of atheroscelerosis using and / or applying said compositions .