The tomato (/təmeɪtoʊ/ or /təmɑːtoʊ/), Solanum lycopersicum, is a plant whose fruit is an edible berry that is culinarily used as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originated in western South America. It was domesticated in Mesoamerica by peoples including the Aztecs. It was introduced to the Old World by the Spanish in the Columbian exchange in the 16th century.
| Tomato | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Solanales |
| Family: | Solanaceae |
| Genus: | Solanum |
| Species: | S. lycopersicum |
| Binomial name | |
| Solanum lycopersicum | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Tomato plants are vines, largely annual and being killed by frost, though sometimes living longer in greenhouses. The flowers are able to self-fertilise. Modern varieties have been bred to ripen uniformly red, in a process that has impaired the fruit's sweetness and flavor. There are thousands of cultivars, varying in size, color, shape, and flavor. Tomatoes are attacked by many insect pests and nematodes, and are subject to diseases caused by viruses and by mildew and blight fungi.
The tomato has a strong savoury umami flavor, and is an important ingredient in cuisines around the world. It is used in pizzas, pasta sauces, soups such as gazpacho, curries including dhansak and rogan josh, as juice, and in Bloody Mary cocktails. Tomato festivals are held annually in Buñol, Spain, in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, and in Närpes, Finland.
Naming
Etymology
The word tomato comes from the Spanish tomate, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl word tomatl [ˈtomat͡ɬ] .[2] The specific name lycopersicum, meaning "wolf peach", originated with Galen, who used it to denote a plant that has never been identified. Luigi Anguillara speculated in the 16th century that Galen's lycopersicum might be the tomato, and despite the impossibility of this identification, lycopersicum entered scientific use as a name for the fruit.[3]
Pronunciation
The usual pronunciations of tomato are /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ (in North American English) and /təˈmɑːtoʊ/ (in British English).[4] The word's dual pronunciations were immortalized in Ira and George Gershwin's 1937 song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" ("You like /pəˈteɪtoʊ/ and I like /pəˈtɑːtoʊ/ / You like /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ and I like /təˈmɑːtoʊ/").[5][6]
Fruit or vegetable
Although the tomato is cooked and eaten as a vegetable, botanically, a tomato is a fruit, specifically a berry, consisting of the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant.[7][8] The issue has led to legal dispute in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables, but not on fruit, caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. In Nix v. Hedden, the U.S. Supreme Court settled the controversy on 10 May 1893, by declaring that for the purposes of the Tariff of 1883 only, the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use—they are generally served with dinner and not dessert.[9]
History
The wild ancestor of the tomato, Solanum pimpinellifolium, is native to western South America.[10] These wild versions were the size of peas.[10] The Spanish first introduced tomatoes to Europe, where they became used in Spanish food. In France, Italy and northern Europe, the tomato was initially grown as an ornamental plant. It was regarded with suspicion as a food because botanists recognized it as a nightshade, a relative of the poisonous Atropa belladonna, deadly nightshade.[11] The leaves and fruit contain tomatine, which in large quantities would be toxic. However, the ripe fruit contains a much lower amount of tomatine than the immature fruit.[12]
Mesoamerica
The exact date of domestication is unknown; by 500 BC, it was already being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas.[13] The Pueblo people believed that tomato seeds could confer powers of divination. The large, lumpy variety of tomato, a mutation from a smoother, smaller fruit, originated in Mesoamerica, and may be the direct ancestor of some modern cultivated tomatoes.[14]
The Aztecs raised several varieties of tomato, with red tomatoes called xitomatl and green tomatoes (physalis) called tomatl (tomatillo).[15] Bernardino de Sahagún reported seeing a great variety of tomatoes in the Aztec market at Tenochtitlán (Mexico City): "large tomatoes, small tomatoes, leaf tomatoes, sweet tomatoes, large serpent tomatoes, nipple-shaped tomatoes", and tomatoes of all colors from the brightest red to the deepest yellow.[16] Sahagún mentioned Aztecs cooking various sauces, some with and without tomatoes of different sizes, serving them in city markets: "foods sauces, hot sauces; ... with tomatoes, ... sauce of large tomatoes, sauce of ordinary tomatoes, sauce of various kinds of sour herbs, avocado sauce."[17]
Spanish distribution
Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés's capture of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, in 1521 initiated the widespread cultural and biological interchange called the Columbian exchange; certainly the tomato was being grown in Europe within a few years of that event.[18] The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in Pietro Andrea Mattioli's 1544 herbal. He suggested that a new type of eggplant had been brought to Italy. He stated that it was blood red or golden color when mature, and could be divided into segments and eaten like an eggplant—that is, cooked and seasoned with salt, black pepper, and oil. Ten years later Mattioli named the fruits in print as pomi d'oro, or "golden apples".[13]
After the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Spanish distributed the tomato throughout their colonies in the Caribbean. They brought it to the Philippines, from where it spread to southeast Asia and then the whole of Asia.[19] The Spanish brought the tomato to Europe, where it grew easily in Mediterranean climates; cultivation began in the 1540s. It was probably eaten shortly after it was introduced, and was certainly being used as food by the early 17th century in Spain, as documented in the 1618 play La octava maravilla by Lope de Vega with "lovelier than ... a tomato in season".[18]
China
The tomato was introduced to China, likely via the Philippines or Macau, in the 16th century. It was given the name 番茄 fānqié (foreign eggplant), as the Chinese named many foodstuffs introduced from abroad, but referring specifically to early introductions.[20]
Italy
The recorded history of tomatoes in Italy dates back to at least 31 October 1548, when the house steward of Cosimo de' Medici, the grand duke of Tuscany, wrote to the Medici private secretary informing him that the basket of tomatoes sent from the grand duke's Florentine estate at Torre del Gallo "had arrived safely".[21] Tomatoes were grown mainly as ornamentals early on after their arrival in Italy. For example, the Florentine aristocrat Giovanvettorio Soderini wrote how they "were to be sought only for their beauty", and were grown only in gardens or flower beds. The tomato's ability to mutate and create new and different varieties helped contribute to its success and spread throughout Italy. However, in areas where the climate supported growing tomatoes, their habit of growing to the ground suggested low status. They were not adopted as a staple of the peasant population because they were not as filling as other fruits already available. Additionally, both toxic and inedible varieties discouraged many people from attempting to consume or prepare any other varieties.[22] In certain areas of Italy, such as Florence, the fruit was used solely as a tabletop decoration, until it was incorporated into the local cuisine in the late 17th or early 18th century.[23] The earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources.[24]
Varieties were developed over the following centuries for drying, for sauce, for pizzas, and for long-term storage. These varieties are usually known for their place of origin as much as by a variety name. For example there is the Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio, the "hanging tomato of Vesuvius", and the well known and highly prized San Marzano tomato grown in that region, with a European protected designation of origin certification.[25]
Britain
Tomatoes were not grown in England until the 1590s. One of the earliest cultivators was John Gerard, a barber-surgeon. Gerard's Herbal, published in 1597, and largely plagiarized from continental sources, is also one of the earliest discussions of the tomato in England. Gerard knew the tomato was eaten in Spain and Italy. Nonetheless, he believed it was poisonous. Gerard's views were influential, and the tomato was considered unfit for eating for many years in Britain and its North American colonies.[24]
However, by the mid-18th century, tomatoes were widely eaten in Britain, and before the end of that century, the Encyclopædia Britannica stated the tomato was "in daily use" in soups, broths, and as a garnish. They were not part of the average person's diet, and though by 1820 they were described as "to be seen in great abundance in all our vegetable markets" and to be "used by all our best cooks", reference was made to their cultivation in gardens still "for the singularity of their appearance", while their use in cooking was associated with exotic Italian or Jewish cuisine.[26] For example, in Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal, it is described under the name "Love Apple (Amoris Pomum)" as being consumed with oil and vinegar in Italy, similar to consumption of cucumbers in the UK.[27]
Middle East
The tomato was introduced to cultivation in the Middle East by John Barker, British consul in Aleppo c. 1799 to 1825.[28][29] Nineteenth century descriptions of its consumption are uniformly as an ingredient in a cooked dish. In 1881, it is described as only eaten in the region "within the last forty years".[30] Today, the tomato is a crucial and ubiquitous part of Middle Eastern cuisine, served fresh in salads (e.g., Arab salad, Israeli salad, Shirazi salad and Turkish salad), grilled with kebabs and other dishes, made into sauces, and so on.[31]
United States
(NRCS_Photo_Gallery).jpg)
The earliest reference to tomatoes being grown in British North America is from 1710, when herbalist William Salmon saw them in what is today South Carolina,[32] perhaps introduced from the Caribbean. By the mid-18th century, they were cultivated on some Carolina plantations, and probably in other parts of the Southeast. Thomas Jefferson, who ate tomatoes in Paris, sent some seeds back to America.[33] Some early American advocates of the culinary use of the tomato included Michele Felice Cornè and Robert Gibbon Johnson.[34] Many Americans considered tomatoes to be poisonous at this time and, in general, they were grown more as ornamental plants than as food. In 1897, W. H. Garrison stated, "The belief was once transmitted that the tomato was sinisterly dangerous." He recalled in his youth tomatoes were dubbed "love-apples or wolf-apples" and shunned as "globes of the devil."[35]
When Alexander W. Livingston began developing the tomato as a commercial crop, his aim had been to grow tomatoes smooth in contour, uniform in size, and sweet in flavor. He eventually developed over seventeen varieties.[36][37][38] The U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1937 yearbook declared that "half of the major varieties were a result of the abilities of the Livingstons to evaluate and perpetuate superior material in the tomato." Livingston's first breed of tomato, the Paragon, was introduced in 1870. In 1875, he introduced the Acme, said to be in the parentage of most cultivars for the next twenty-five years.[36][39] Other early breeders included Henry Tilden in Iowa and a Dr. Hand in Baltimore.[40]
Because of the tomato's need for heat and a long growing season, several states in the US Sun Belt became major producers, particularly Florida and California. In California, tomatoes are grown under irrigation for both the fresh fruit market and for canning and processing. The University of California, Davis became a major center for tomato research. The C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center there is a gene bank of wild relatives, monogenic mutants and genetic stocks.[41] Charles M. Rick was a pioneer in tomato genetics research.[42] Research on processing tomatoes is also conducted by the California Tomato Research Institute in Escalon, California.[43] In California, growers have used a method of cultivation called dry-farming, especially with Early Girl tomatoes. This technique encourages the plant to send roots deep to find existing moisture.[44]
Botany
Description
Tomato plants are vines, initially decumbent, and could grow up to 3 m (9.8 ft), although erect bush varieties have been bred, generally 100 cm (3 ft 3 in) tall or shorter. Indeterminate types are "tender" perennials, dying annually in temperate climates (they are originally native to tropical highlands), although they sometimes live up to three years in greenhouses. Determinate types are annual in all climates.[45]
Tomato plants are dicots. They grow as a series of branching stems, with a terminal bud at the tip that does the actual growing. When the tip eventually stops growing, whether because of pruning or flowering, lateral buds take over and grow into other, fully functional, vines.[46] Tomato vines are typically pubescent, meaning covered with fine short hairs. The hairs facilitate the vining process, turning into roots wherever the plant is in contact with the ground and moisture, especially if the vine's connection to its original root has been damaged or severed.[47] The leaves are 10–25 cm (4–10 in) long, odd pinnate, with five to nine leaflets on petioles, each leaflet up to 8 cm (3 in) long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy.[48]
Tomato flowers are bisexual and are able to self fertilise. As tomatoes were moved from their native areas, their traditional pollinators (probably a species of halictid bee) did not move with them.[49] The trait of self-fertility became an advantage, and domestic cultivars of tomato have been selected to maximize this trait.[49] This is not the same as self-pollination, despite the common claim that tomatoes do so. That tomatoes pollinate themselves poorly without outside aid is clearly shown in greenhouse situations, where pollination must be aided by artificial wind, vibration of the plants, or by cultured bumblebees.[50]
The flowers develop on the apical meristem. They have the anthers fused along the edges, forming a column surrounding the pistil's style. The anthers bend into a cone-like structure, surrounding the stigma. The flowers are 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla; they are borne in a cyme of three to twelve together.[47][51]
The fruit develops from the ovary of the plant after fertilization, its flesh comprising the pericarp walls. The fruit contains hollow spaces full of seeds and moisture, called locular cavities. These vary, among cultivated species, according to type. Some smaller varieties have two cavities, globe-shaped varieties typically have three to five, beefsteak tomatoes have a great number of smaller cavities, while paste tomatoes have very few, very small cavities.[52][53][54] For propagation, the seeds need to come from a mature fruit, and must be lightly fermented to remove the gelatinous outer coating and then dried before use.[55]
The tomato has a mutualistic relationship with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi such as Rhizophagus irregularis. Scientists use the tomato as a model species for investigating such symbioses.[56]
Seedlings 7 days after planting
27 days after planting
Flower
52-day-old plant, first fruits
Unripe fruit on the vine
Phylogeny
Like the potato, tomatoes belong to the genus Solanum, which is a member of the nightshade family, the Solanaceae. That is a diverse family of flowering plants, often poisonous, that includes the mandrake (Mandragora), deadly nightshade (Atropa), and tobacco (Nicotiana), as shown in the outline phylogenetic tree (many branches omitted).[57]
| Solanaceae |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Taxonomy
In 1753, Linnaeus placed the tomato in the genus Solanum (alongside the potato) as Solanum lycopersicum. In 1768, Philip Miller moved it to its own genus, naming it Lycopersicon esculentum.[58] The name came into wide use, but was technically in breach of the plant naming rules because Linnaeus's species name lycopersicum still had priority. Although the name Lycopersicum lycopersicum was suggested by Karsten (1888), it is not used because it violates the International Code of Nomenclature[59] barring the use of tautonyms in botanical nomenclature. The corrected name Lycopersicon lycopersicum (Nicolson 1974) was technically valid, because Miller's genus name and Linnaeus's species name differ in exact spelling. As Lycopersicon esculentum has become so well known, it was officially listed as a nomen conservandum in 1983, and would be the correct name for the tomato in classifications which do not place the tomato in the genus Solanum.[60]
Genetic evidence shows that Linnaeus was correct to put the tomato in the genus Solanum, making S. lycopersicum the correct name.[1][61] Both names, however, will probably be found in the literature for some time. Two of the major reasons for considering the genera separate are the leaf structure (tomato leaves are markedly different from any other Solanum), and the biochemistry (many of the alkaloids common to other Solanum species are conspicuously absent from the tomato). On the other hand, hybrids of tomato and diploid potato can be created in the lab by somatic fusion, and are partially fertile, providing evidence of the close relationship between these species.[62]
Plant breeding
Genetics
| NCBI genome ID | GCF_000188115.5 |
|---|---|
| Specimen sequenced | Heinz 1706 |
| Ploidy | haploid |
| Genome size | 827.4 Mb |
| Number of chromosomes | 12 |
| Number of genes | 31,217 |
| Protein-coding | 25,557 |
| Year of completion | 2018 |
An international consortium of researchers from 10 countries began sequencing the tomato genome in 2004.[63][64] A prerelease version of the genome was made available in December 2009.[65] The complete genome for the cultivar Heinz 1706 was published on 31 May 2012 in Nature.[66][67] The latest reference genome published in 2021 had 799 MB and encodes 34,384 (predicted) proteins, spread over 12 chromosomes.[68]
The first commercially available genetically modified food was a tomato called Flavr Savr, which was engineered to have a longer shelf life.[69] It could be vine ripened without compromising shelf life. However, the product was not commercially successful, and was sold only until 1997.[70]
Breeding of modern commercial varieties
The poor taste and lack of sugar in modern garden and commercial tomato varieties resulted from breeding tomatoes to ripen uniformly red. This change occurred after discovery of a mutant "u" phenotype in the mid-20th century, so named because the fruits ripened uniformly. This was widely cross-bred to produce red fruit without the typical green ring around the stem on un-crossbred varieties. Before this, most tomatoes produced more sugar during ripening, and were sweeter and more flavorful.[71][72]
10–20% of the total carbon fixed in the fruit can be produced by photosynthesis in the developing fruit of the normal U phenotype. The u mutation encodes a factor that produces defective chloroplasts with lower density in developing fruit, resulting in a lighter green colour of unripe fruit, and repression of sugar accumulation in the resulting ripe fruit by 10–15%. Perhaps more importantly, the fruit chloroplasts are remodelled during ripening into chlorophyll-free chromoplasts that synthesize and accumulate the carotenoids lycopene, β-carotene, and other metabolites that are sensory and nutritional assets of the ripe fruit. The potent chloroplasts in the dark-green shoulders of the "U" phenotype are beneficial here, but have the disadvantage of leaving green shoulders near the stems of the ripe fruit, and even cracked yellow shoulders. This is apparently because of oxidative stress due to overload of the photosynthetic chain in direct sunlight at high temperatures. Hence, genetic design of a commercial variety that combines the advantages of types "u" and "U" requires fine tuning, but may be feasible.[73]
Breeders strive to produce tomato plants with improved yield, shelf life, size, and resistance to environmental pressures, including disease.[74][75] These efforts have yielded unintended negative consequences on various fruit attributes. For instance, linkage drag, the introduction of an undesired trait during backcrossing, has altered the metabolism of the fruit. This trait is physically close to the desired allele along the chromosome. Breeding for traits like larger fruit has thus unintentionally altered nutritional value and flavor.[74]
Breeders have turned to wild tomato species as a source of alleles to introduce beneficial traits into modern varieties. For example, wild relatives may possess higher amounts of fruit solids (associated with greater sugar content), or resistance to diseases such as to the early blight pathogen Alternaria solani. However, this tactic has limitations, since selection for traits such as pathogen resistance can negatively impact other favorable traits such as fruit production.[75][76]
Cultivation
The tomato is grown worldwide for its edible fruits, with thousands of cultivars.[77]
Ancient varieties in a French market
Various heirloom (heritage) cultivars
Modern varieties in France
Yellow cherry tomatoes
Hydroponic and greenhouse cultivation
Greenhouse tomato production in large-acreage commercial greenhouses and owner-operator stand-alone or multiple-bay greenhouses is on the increase, providing fruit during those times of the year when field-grown fruit is not readily available. Smaller sized fruit (cherry and grape), or cluster tomatoes (fruit-on-the-vine) are the fruit of choice for the large commercial greenhouse operators while the beefsteak varieties are the choice of owner-operator growers.[78] Tomatoes are also grown using hydroponics.[79]
Flower and young fruit
Flowers and ripe fruit can be present simultaneously.
Hydroponic cultivation
Greenhouse cultivation in Andalusia
Picking and ripening
To facilitate transportation and storage, tomatoes are often picked unripe (green) and ripened in storage with the plant hormone ethylene.[80]
A machine-harvestable variety of tomato (the "square tomato") was developed in the 1950s by University of California, Davis's Gordie C. Hanna, which, in combination with the development of a suitable harvester, revolutionized the tomato-growing industry. This type of tomato is grown commercially near plants that process and can tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. They are harvested when ripe and are flavorful when picked. They are harvested 24 hours a day, seven days a week during a 12- to 14-week season, and immediately transported to packing plants, which operate on the same schedule. California is a center of this sort of commercial tomato production and produces about a third of the world's processed tomatoes.[81]
Production
| Tomato production – 2022 | |
|---|---|
| Producer | (Millions of tonnes) |
 China | 68.2 |
 India | 20.7 |
 Turkey | 13.0 |
 United States | 10.2 |
 Egypt | 6.3 |
 Mexico | 4.2 |
| World | 186.2 |
| Source: FAOSTAT of the United Nations[82] | |
In 2022, world production of tomatoes was 186 million tonnes, with China accounting for 37% of the total, followed by India, Turkey, and the United States as major producers (table).[82] The world dedicated 4.8 million hectares in 2012 for tomato cultivation and the total production was about 161.8 million tonnes.[83] The average world farm yield for tomato was 33.6 tonnes per hectare in 2012.[83] Tomato farms in the Netherlands were the most productive in 2012, with a nationwide average of 476 tonnes per hectare, followed by Belgium (463 tonnes per hectare) and Iceland (429 tonnes per hectare).[84]
Pests and diseases
Pests
Common tomato pests include the tomato bug, stink bugs, cutworms, tomato hornworms and tobacco hornworms, aphids, cabbage loopers, whiteflies, tomato fruitworms, flea beetles, red spider mite, slugs,[85] and Colorado potato beetles. The tomato russet mite, Aculops lycopersici, feeds on foliage and young fruit of tomato plants, causing shrivelling and necrosis of leaves, flowers, and fruit, possibly killing the plant.[86]
After an insect attack tomato plants produce systemin, a plant peptide hormone. This activates defensive mechanisms, such as the production of protease inhibitors to slow the growth of insects. The hormone was first identified in tomatoes.[87]
Tomato bug feeding on plant sap
Tomato fruitworm feeding on unripe fruit
Tomato hornworm larva on stem
Tomato russet mites on greenhouse plant
Diseases
Tomato cultivars vary widely in their resistance to disease. Modern hybrids focus on improving disease resistance over the heirloom plants. Various forms of mildew and blight are common tomato afflictions, which is why tomato cultivars are often marked with a combination of letters that refer to specific disease resistance. The most common letters are:
- LB – 'late blight'[88]
- V – verticillium wilt
- F – fusarium wilt strain I
- FF – fusarium wilt strain I and II
- N – nematodes
- T – tobacco mosaic virus, and
- A – alternaria.
A common tomato disease is tobacco mosaic virus. Handling cigarettes and other infected tobacco products can transmit the virus to tomato plants.[89] A serious disease is curly top, carried by the beet leafhopper, which interrupts the lifecycle. As the name implies, it has the symptom of making the top leaves of the plant wrinkle up and grow abnormally.[90] Bacterial wilt is another common disease impacting yield.[91] Wang et al., 2019 found phage combination therapies to reduce the impact of bacterial wilt, sometimes by reducing bacterial abundance and sometimes by selecting for resistant but slow growing genetics.[91]
Late blight, caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans
Wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum
Nematode root-knot caused by Meloidogyne incognita
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-_Root_knot_nematodes_-_27421750599.jpg)
As food
Culinary
Tomatoes have become extensively used in Mediterranean cuisine as a key ingredient in pizza and many pasta sauces.[92] Tomatoes are used in Spanish and Catalan dishes, such as gazpacho[93] and pa amb tomàquet.[94]
Tomato became a key ingredient in Indian curry dishes such as dhansak[95] after the Portuguese introduced them in the 15th century. A Kashmiri curry, Rogan Josh, often contains tomato; it may originally have been colored red with chili pepper,[96] and tomatoes may characterize the Punjabi version of the dish.[97] The modern British curry tikka masala often has a tomato and cream sauce.[98]
Tomato soup with croutons
Rogan josh, a curry often made with tomatoes
Bloody Mary, a tomato cocktail
Pa amb tomàquet, Catalan tomato bread
Tomatoes stuffed with egg and Parmesan cheese
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Storage
Tomatoes keep best unwashed at room temperature and out of direct sunlight. It is not recommended to refrigerate them as they take a mealy texture and lose flavour.[99][100] Storing stem down can prolong shelf life.[101] Unripe tomatoes can be kept in a paper bag to ripen.[102] Tomatoes are easy to preserve whole, chopped, or as tomato sauce or concentrated paste by home canning. The fruit can be preserved by drying, in the sun where climate permits, and sold either in bags or in jars with oil.[103]
Nutritional value
| Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 74 kJ (18 kcal) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
3.9 g | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sugars | 2.6 g | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dietary fiber | 1.2 g | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
0.2 g | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
0.9 g | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other constituents | Quantity | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Water | 94.5 g | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lycopene | 2573 μg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| †Percentages estimated using US recommendations for adults,[104] except for potassium, which is estimated based on expert recommendation from the National Academies.[105] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A raw tomato is 95% water, contains 4% carbohydrates, and has less than 1% each of fat and protein (see table). 100 grams (3.5 oz) of raw tomatoes supply 18 kilocalories and are a moderate source of vitamin C (17% of the Daily Value), but otherwise have low micronutrient content (table).[106]
The tomato has a strong savoury umami flavor, rather than significant sweetness. Chef Heston Blumenthal observed that the inner pulp had more flavour that the flesh; a subsequent academic study in which he participated confirmed that the pulp had up to eleven times more glutamic acid, which carries the umami flavour, than the flesh.[107]
Effects on health
An extensive review in 2022 analysed the health benefits of eating tomatoes, and some risks, due both to external factors (pesticides, microbial contamination, heavy metals from contaminated soil), and intrinsic; for example, lycopene, at least as a supplement, has anti-platelet effect undesirable for patients on blood thinners and similar medications. The review concludes that "the synergistic effects of all tomato constituents are likely to outweigh the benefits of tomato's individual constituents, such as lycopene".[108] Studies of the effects of the lycopene in tomatoes or in supplements have not found conclusive evidence to indicate that it affects the onset of cardiovascular diseases or cancer.[109] In a scientific review of potential claims for lycopene favorably affecting DNA, skin exposed to ultraviolet radiation, heart function and vision, the European Food Safety Authority concluded in 2011 that the evidence for all these effects was inconclusive.[110] In the United States, packaged food products must not mention supposed health benefits of consuming tomatoes, tomato products or lycopene to affect cancer without a qualifying health claim statement.[111]
Toxins
The leaves, stem, and green unripe fruit of the tomato plant contain small amounts of the alkaloid tomatine, whose effect on humans has not been studied.[12] They also contain small amounts of solanine, a toxic alkaloid found in potato leaves and other plants in the nightshade family.[112][113] Tomato plants can be toxic to dogs if they eat large amounts of the fruit, or chew plant material.[114]
Small amounts of tomato foliage are sometimes used for flavoring without ill effect, and the green fruit of unripe red tomato varieties is sometimes used for cooking, particularly as fried green tomatoes.[12] There are also tomato varieties with fully ripe fruit that is still green. Compared to potatoes, the amount of solanine in unripe green or fully ripe tomatoes is low. However, even in the case of potatoes, while solanine poisoning resulting from dosages several times the normal human consumption has been demonstrated, actual cases of poisoning from excessive consumption of potatoes are rare.[113]
Salmonella outbreaks
Tomatoes were linked to seven Salmonella food poisoning outbreaks between 1990 and 2005,[115] and may have been the cause of an outbreak causing 172 illnesses in 18 US states in 2006.[116] The 2008 United States salmonellosis outbreak caused the temporary removal of tomatoes from stores and restaurants across the United States and parts of Canada.[117]
In popular culture
The longest tomato plant grown was of the cultivar "Sungold" and reached 19.8 m (65 ft) in length, grown by Nutriculture Ltd of Mawdesley, Lancashire, UK, in 2000.[118] A massive "tomato tree" in the Walt Disney World Resort's experimental greenhouses in Lake Buena Vista, Florida may have been the largest single tomato plant. It yielded a harvest of more than 32,000 tomatoes and a total weight of 522 kg (1,151 lb).[119][120]
The town of Buñol, Spain, annually celebrates La Tomatina, a festival centered on an enormous tomato fight. On 30 August 2007, 40,000 Spaniards gathered to throw 115,000 kg (254,000 lb) of tomatoes at each other in the festival.[121]
Some US states have adopted the tomato as a state fruit or vegetable. Arkansas took both sides by declaring the South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato both the state fruit and the state vegetable in the same law, citing both its culinary and botanical classifications.[122] In 2009, the state of Ohio passed a law making the tomato the state's official fruit, while tomato juice has been the state's official beverage since 1965.[123] Livingston's plant breeding is commemorated in his home town of Reynoldsburg with an annual Tomato Festival;[124] it calls itself "The Birthplace of the Tomato".[36] In Finland, the Tomatkarnevalen is held annually in the town of Närpes.[125]
Tomatoes are a popular "nonlethal" throwing weapon in mass protests, and there was a common tradition of throwing rotten tomatoes at bad performers on a stage during the 19th century; today this is usually referenced as a metaphor. Embracing it for this protest connotation, the Dutch Socialist party adopted the tomato as their logo. The same meaning is evoked in the name of the American review-aggregation website for film and television, "Rotten Tomatoes", though its founder mentions a scene in the 1992 movie Leolo as the immediate source of the name.[126]
Throwing tomatoes from a truck during the Spanish Tomatina festival
See also
- List of countries by tomato production
- Marglobe, an early attempt at breeding a disease-resistant tomato
- Ring culture
- Physalis, a similar fruit also used in cooking
- Tomato effect
- Tomato jam
- Nightshades
References
Sources
Further reading
External links
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