View allAll Photos Tagged Lycopene,
Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, an antioxidant that is good for the heart and effective against certain cancers..............
Gac fruit is another fruit you should try when traveling in Thailand even if it’s not that popular among Thai fruits. In fact, it is really hard to find it on the street. Gac fruit is rich in the antioxidants beta-carotene, lycopene. It is also known in the world as the best fruit to supply vitamins, minerals and nutrients.
ha! recalling the schooling days C40H56 is the water insoluble pigment called Lycopene, which you enjoy when you devour that sweet tomato. It has antioxidant properties, potentially helping your overall health and giving leaves in fall the bright red color - cause that's where I was actually trying to get to :)
A few days ago, we found these tomatoes at our usual grocery store; they seemed to be producing new ones.
So I bought them to take some pictures and then try them.
The word tomato comes from the Spanish tomate, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl word tomatl
The Spanish first introduced tomatoes to Europe, around the year 1530, where they became used in Spanish food.
Elsewhere in Europe, its first use was ornamental, not least because it was understood to be related to the nightshades and assumed to be poisonous.
One of the main components of the tomato is lycopene.
Lycopene has antioxidant properties and protects human cells from oxidative stress caused by free radicals, which are a major contributor to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and aging.
It also modulates the molecules responsible for regulating the cell cycle and can lead to the regression of certain cancerous lesions. (Source: Wikipedia)
Photo taken in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain.
¿TOMATES PREÑADOS? 2025
Hace pocos días encontramos en nuestra tienda habitual de alimentación estos tomates que parecían estar criando otros nuevos.
Así que los compré para hacerles unas fotos y luego saborearlos.
El nombre proviene de xitomatl, en la lengua mexica náhuatl.
Los españoles fueron los primeros en introducir el tomate en Europa, hacia el año 1530, donde se incorporó a la gastronomía española.
En otras partes de Europa, su primer uso fue ornamental, sobre todo porque se creía que estaba emparentado con las solanáceas y se pensaba que era venenoso.
Uno de los componentes principales del tomate es el Licopeno.
El licopeno posee propiedades antioxidantes, y actúa protegiendo a las células humanas del estrés oxidativo, producido por la acción de los radicales libres, que son uno de los principales responsables de las enfermedades cardiovasculares, del cáncer y del envejecimiento.
Además, actúa modulando las moléculas responsables de la regulación del ciclo celular y produciendo una regresión de ciertas lesiones cancerosas. (Fuente: Wikipedia)
Foto tomada en Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, España.
Nom français : Arbre aux quarante écus une espèce de Ginkgo
English name : ginkgo or gingko
Nombre en español :gingko o árbol de los cuarenta escudos
Nom botanique : Ginkgo biloba
Fujifilm X-T50
Fujinon XF 27/2.8 R WR II
ƒ/2.8 27.0 mm 1/250 ISO:200
Healthy wild fruits..Crab apples... rosehips .... blackthorn ..
Crab apples... are edible...they are bowel cleansing ... metabolism-enhancing and contain pectin that binds toxins in the gut.
Rose hips :
From the shell of the hip can make a vitamin-rich tea, which is slightly diuretic and laxative because of its high content of vegetable acids and Pektiden. He helps with bladder and kidney ailments and colds.
The Mus is particularly suitable because of its sprouting and effect is like a rehashing against gout and rheumatism uses.
The jam promotes appetite ..is rich in vitamin C and lycopene.
Blackthorn: ... The flowers, bark and fruits have an astringent diuretic, laxative weakly, antipyretic, stomachic and anti-inflammatory. A flower infusion is used especially in children with diarrheal diseases in bladder and kidney problems, and stomach discomfort. Blackthorn elixier is considered suitable tonic after infectious diseases.
by wikipedia
Gesunde Wildfrüchte..Zieräpfelchen...Hagebutten....Schlehen..
Zieräpfel :
sind essbar..sie sind darmreinigend...stoffwechselfördernd und enthalten Pektin das Giftstoffe im Darm bindet.
Hagebutten :
Aus der Schale der Hagebutte kann man einen vitaminreichen Tee machen, der wegen seines hohen Gehaltes an Pflanzensäuren und Pektiden leicht harntreibend und abführend ist. Er hilft bei Blasen- und Nierenleiden und bei Erkältungskrankheiten.
Das Mus eignet sich besonders wegen seiner austreibenden Wirkung und wird wie der Aufguss gegen Gicht und Rheuma verwendet.
Die Marmelade fördert den Appetit ..ist reich an Vitamin C und Lycopin.
Schlehdorn :
...Die Blüten, Rinde und Früchte wirken adstringierend (zusammenziehend), harntreibend, schwach abführend, fiebersenkend, magenstärkend und entzündungshemmend. Ein Blütenaufguss wird besonders bei Kindern bei Durchfallerkrankungen, bei Blasen- und Nierenproblemen und Magenbeschwerden eingesetzt.Schlehenelixier gilt als geeignetes Stärkungsmittel nach Infektionskrankheiten.
Infos von wikipedia
Nom français : Arbre aux quarante écus une espèce de Ginkgo
English name : ginkgo or gingko
Nombre en español :gingko o árbol de los cuarenta escudos
Nom botanique : Ginkgo biloba
Fujifilm X-T50
Fujinon XF 27/2.8 R WR II
ƒ/2.8 27.0 mm 1/250 ISO:250
Nom français : Arbre aux quarante écus une espèce de Ginkgo
English name : ginkgo or gingko
Nombre en español :gingko o árbol de los cuarenta escudos
Nom botanique : Ginkgo biloba
Fujifilm X-T50
Fujinon XF 27/2.8 R WR II
ƒ/2.8 27.0 mm 1/100 ISO:500
The grapefruit (Citrus × paradisi Macfad) is a large, subtropical citrus fruit known for its tangy, semi-sweet to bitter-sour taste. It is a natural hybrid between the sweet orange and the Indonesian pomelo. It gets its name because the fruit grows on the tree in tight, grape-like clusters.
It is also highly rich in Vitamin C , Vitamin A, Potassium, and beneficial antioxidants like lycopene and beta-carotene.
I was repelled by the smell of rotting flesh ... or so it seemed until I noticed the strange geometric red forms of Stinkhorn fungi. Although their strong rotting smell is bad, these fungi aren't bad for your landscape and can actually be beneficial. Stinkhorns break down organic matter which is especially helpful in Florida’s naturally sandy, nutrient-poor soils. Stinkhorns break down mulch to make nutrients available for plants.
Clathrus ruber is a species of fungus in the stinkhorn family, and the type species of the genus Clathrus. It is commonly known as the latticed stinkhorn, the basket stinkhorn, or the red cage, alluding to the striking fruit bodies that are shaped somewhat like a round or oval hollow sphere with interlaced or latticed branches. The fungus is saprobic, feeding off decaying woody plant material, and is often found alone or in groups in leaf litter on garden soil, grassy places, or on woodchip garden mulches. Although considered primarily a European species, C. ruber has been introduced to other areas, and now has a wide distribution that includes northern and southern Africa, Asia, Australia, and North and South America. The species was illustrated in the scientific literature during the 16th century, but was not officially described until 1729.
The fruit body initially appears like a whitish "egg" attached to the ground at the base by cords called rhizomorphs. The egg has a delicate, leathery outer membrane enclosing the compressed lattice that surrounds a layer of olive-green spore-bearing slime called the gleba, which contains high levels of calcium that help protect the fruit body during development. As the egg ruptures and the fruit body expands, the gleba is carried upward on the inner surfaces of the spongy lattice, and the egg membrane remains as a volva around the base of the structure. The fruit body can reach heights of up to 20 cm (7.9 in). The color of the fruit body, which can range from pink to orange to red, results primarily from the carotenoid pigments lycopene and beta-carotene. The gleba has a fetid odor, somewhat like rotting meat, which attracts flies and other insects to help disperse its spores. Although the edibility of the fungus is not known with certainty, its odor would deter most from consuming it. C. ruber was not regarded highly in tales in southern European folklore, which suggested that those who handled the mushroom risked contracting various ailments.
Stinkhorns are in the same order of fungi as puffballs and earthstars. They start out as white egg-like structures in mulch or other damp decomposing material. Most of the fungal structure is underground. When enough water is available, the egg-sac structure ruptures and the mature mushroom (the “stinkhorn”) emerges. The smell attracts ants and flies that carry Stinkhorn spores to other places.
Depending on the type of stinkhorn, this mushroom is stalk-like, globular, or latticed. Stinkhorns vary in color but are usually red to orange in Florida.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami FL
Explore Aug 21, 2016 #137
I headed out to show my roofer where the leak was and we were repelled by the smell of rotting flesh... or so it seemed until I noticed the strange geometric red forms of Stinkhorn fungi. Although their strong rotting smell is bad, these fungi aren't bad for your landscape and can actually be beneficial. Stinkhorns break down organic matter which is especially helpful in Florida’s naturally sandy, nutrient-poor soils. Stinkhorns break down mulch to make nutrients available for plants.
Clathrus ruber is a species of fungus in the stinkhorn family, and the type species of the genus Clathrus. It is commonly known as the latticed stinkhorn, the basket stinkhorn, or the red cage, alluding to the striking fruit bodies that are shaped somewhat like a round or oval hollow sphere with interlaced or latticed branches. The fungus is saprobic, feeding off decaying woody plant material, and is often found alone or in groups in leaf litter on garden soil, grassy places, or on woodchip garden mulches. Although considered primarily a European species, C. ruber has been introduced to other areas, and now has a wide distribution that includes northern and southern Africa, Asia, Australia, and North and South America. The species was illustrated in the scientific literature during the 16th century, but was not officially described until 1729.
The fruit body initially appears like a whitish "egg" attached to the ground at the base by cords called rhizomorphs. The egg has a delicate, leathery outer membrane enclosing the compressed lattice that surrounds a layer of olive-green spore-bearing slime called the gleba, which contains high levels of calcium that help protect the fruit body during development. As the egg ruptures and the fruit body expands, the gleba is carried upward on the inner surfaces of the spongy lattice, and the egg membrane remains as a volva around the base of the structure. The fruit body can reach heights of up to 20 cm (7.9 in). The color of the fruit body, which can range from pink to orange to red, results primarily from the carotenoid pigments lycopene and beta-carotene. The gleba has a fetid odor, somewhat like rotting meat, which attracts flies and other insects to help disperse its spores. Although the edibility of the fungus is not known with certainty, its odor would deter most from consuming it. C. ruber was not regarded highly in tales in southern European folklore, which suggested that those who handled the mushroom risked contracting various ailments.
Stinkhorns are in the same order of fungi as puffballs and earthstars. They start out as white egg-like structures in mulch or other damp decomposing material. Most of the fungal structure is underground. When enough water is available, the egg-sac structure ruptures and the mature mushroom (the “stinkhorn”) emerges. The smell attracts ants and flies that carry Stinkhorn spores to other places.
Depending on the type of stinkhorn, this mushroom is stalk-like, globular, or latticed. Stinkhorns vary in color but are usually red to orange in Florida.
Parsley is widely used in Middle Eastern, European, Brazilian and American cooking. Curly leaf parsley is used often as a garnish. Green parsley is used frequently as a garnish on potato dishes (boiled or mashed potatoes), on rice dishes (risotto or pilaf), on fish, fried chicken, lamb, goose, and steaks, as well in meat or vegetable stews (including shrimp creole, beef bourguignon, goulash, or chicken paprikash).
In central Europe, eastern Europe and southern Europe, as well as in western Asia, many dishes are served with fresh green, chopped parsley sprinkled on top. In southern and central Europe, parsley is part of bouquet garni, a bundle of fresh herbs used as an ingredient in stocks, soups, and sauces. Freshly chopped green parsley is used as a topping for soups such as chicken soup, green salads, or salads such as salade Olivier, and on open sandwiches with cold cuts or pâtés.
Persillade is a mixture of chopped garlic and chopped parsley in French cuisine.
Parsley is the main ingredient in Italian salsa verde, which is a mixed condiment of parsley, capers, anchovies, garlic, and sometimes bread soaked in vinegar. It is an Italian custom to serve it with bollito misto or fish. Gremolata, a mixture of parsley, garlic, and lemon zest, is a traditional accompaniment to the Italian veal stew, ossobuco alla milanese.
In England, parsley sauce is a roux-based sauce, commonly served over fish or gammon.
Root parsley is very common in Central, Eastern and Southern European cuisines, where it is used as a snack or a vegetable in many soups, stews, and casseroles, and as ingredient for broth.
In Brazil, freshly chopped parsley (salsa [ˈsawsɐ]) and freshly chopped scallion (cebolinha [sebuˈɫĩɲɐ]) are the main ingredients in the herb seasoning called cheiro-verde ([ˈʃejɾu ˈveʁdʒi], literally "green aroma"), which is used as key seasoning for major Brazilian dishes, including meat, chicken, fish, rice, beans, stews, soups, vegetables, salads, condiments, sauces, and stocks. Cheiro-verde is sold in food markets as a bundle of both types of fresh herbs. In some Brazilian regions, chopped parsley may be replaced by chopped coriander (cilantro)(coentro [ˈkwẽtɾu]) in the mixture.
Parsley is a key ingredient in several Middle Eastern salads such as Lebanese tabbouleh.
Parsley is a source of flavonoid and antioxidants, especially luteolin, apigenin, folic acid, vitamin K, vitamin C, and vitamin A. Half a tablespoon (a gram) of dried parsley contains about 6.0 µg of lycopene and 10.7 µg of alpha carotene as well as 82.9 µg of lutein+zeaxanthin and 80.7 µg of beta carotene.
Excessive consumption of parsley should be avoided by pregnant women. It is safe in normal food quantities, but large amounts may have uterotonic effects.
Indigenous to Mexico, bell peppers are also called capsicum peppers. Capsicum peppers are rich sources of antioxidants and vitamin C. The level of carotene, like lycopene, is nine times higher in red peppers. Red peppers have twice the vitamin C content of green peppers
One of my favorite fresh vegi, I can have it everyday with every kinds of cooked either fresh:))
Tomato may refer to both the plant (Solanum lycopersicum) and the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler climates.
The tomato fruit is consumed in diverse ways, including raw, as an ingredient in many dishes and sauces, and in drinks. While it is botanically a fruit, it is considered a vegetable for culinary purposes (as well as by the United States Supreme Court, see Nix v. Hedden), which has caused some confusion. The fruit is rich in lycopene, which may have beneficial health effects.
The tomato belongs to the nightshade family. The plants typically grow to 1–3 metres (3–10 ft) in height and have a weak stem that often sprawls over the ground and vines over other plants. It is a perennial in its native habitat, although often grown outdoors in temperate climates as an annual.
Thank you to have some vegi everyday, your stomach will have good health, lead your good physical:)
I headed out to empty my trash and I was repelled by the smell of rotting flesh... or so it seemed until I noticed the strange geometric red forms of Stinkhorn fungi. Although their strong rotting smell is bad, these fungi aren't bad for your landscape and can actually be beneficial. Stinkhorns break down organic matter which is especially helpful in Florida’s naturally sandy, nutrient-poor soils. Stinkhorns break down mulch to make nutrients available for plants.
Clathrus ruber is a species of fungus in the stinkhorn family, and the type species of the genus Clathrus. It is commonly known as the latticed stinkhorn, the basket stinkhorn, or the red cage, alluding to the striking fruit bodies that are shaped somewhat like a round or oval hollow sphere with interlaced or latticed branches. The fungus is saprobic, feeding off decaying woody plant material, and is often found alone or in groups in leaf litter on garden soil, grassy places, or on woodchip garden mulches. Although considered primarily a European species, C. ruber has been introduced to other areas, and now has a wide distribution that includes northern and southern Africa, Asia, Australia, and North and South America. The species was illustrated in the scientific literature during the 16th century, but was not officially described until 1729.
The fruit body initially appears like a whitish "egg" attached to the ground at the base by cords called rhizomorphs. The egg has a delicate, leathery outer membrane enclosing the compressed lattice that surrounds a layer of olive-green spore-bearing slime called the gleba, which contains high levels of calcium that help protect the fruit body during development. As the egg ruptures and the fruit body expands, the gleba is carried upward on the inner surfaces of the spongy lattice, and the egg membrane remains as a volva around the base of the structure. The fruit body can reach heights of up to 20 cm (7.9 in). The color of the fruit body, which can range from pink to orange to red, results primarily from the carotenoid pigments lycopene and beta-carotene. The gleba has a fetid odor, somewhat like rotting meat, which attracts flies and other insects to help disperse its spores. Although the edibility of the fungus is not known with certainty, its odor would deter most from consuming it. C. ruber was not regarded highly in tales in southern European folklore, which suggested that those who handled the mushroom risked contracting various ailments.
Stinkhorns are in the same order of fungi as puffballs and earthstars. They start out as white egg-like structures in mulch or other damp decomposing material. Most of the fungal structure is underground. When enough water is available, the egg-sac structure ruptures and the mature mushroom (the “stinkhorn”) emerges. The smell attracts ants and flies that carry Stinkhorn spores to other places.
Depending on the type of stinkhorn, this mushroom is stalk-like, globular, or latticed. Stinkhorns vary in color but are usually red to orange in Florida.
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Vegetable Color Facts:
Orange and Yellow fruits and vegetables contain beta-carotene, zeaxanthin, flavonoids, lycopene, potassium, and vitamin C. These nutrients reduce age-related macula degeneration and the risk of prostate cancer, lower LDL cholesterol and blood pressure, promote collagen formation and healthy joints, fight harmful free radicals, encourage alkaline balance, and work with magnesium and calcium to build healthy bones.
Green vegetables contain chlorophyll, fiber, lutein, zeaxanthin, calcium, folate, vitamin C, calcium, and Beta-carotene. The nutrients found in these vegetables reduce cancer risks, lower blood pressure and LDL cholesterol levels, normalize digestion time, support retinal health and vision, fight harmful free-radicals, and boost immune system activity.
Eat Fresh Vegetables/Fruits and Stay Healthy!
Content source: Disabled World
This is part of a series of photos I took for my article on changing your camera viewing angle.
Thank you to everyone who checks it out, and of course to all of our subscribers!
David Beck
Austin, TX
Nom français : Arbre aux quarante écus une espèce de Ginkgo
English name : ginkgo or gingko
Nombre en español :gingko o árbol de los cuarenta escudos
Nom botanique : Ginkgo biloba
Fujifilm X-T50
Viltrox AF 27/1.2 XF
ƒ/1,6 27.0 mm 1/1000 ISO:250
Native to Mexico and northern South America, papaya has become naturalised throughout all tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Here in Australia, the best region for growing Papayas and Pawpaws is Innisfail in FNQ (Far North Queensland).
Papayas are also a good source of:
* folate
* vitamin A
* magnesium
* copper
* pantothenic acid
* fiber
They also have B vitamins, alpha and beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin, vitamin E, calcium, potassium, vitamin K, and lycopene, the powerful antioxidant most commonly associated with tomatoes.
Benefits of eating papaya:
* Good Eye Health. Papayas are loaded with Vitamin A an antioxidants, which helps in improving eye health. ...
* Aids digestion. ...
* Anti-ageing. ...
* Boosts Immunity. ...
* Helps in weight loss. ...
* Better kidney health. ...
* Great for diabetics. ...
* Better cardiovascular health.
A Ham & Mushroom Pizza, like most pizzas, can fall anywhere on the health spectrum from a treat to a more balanced meal, largely depending on its preparation and portion size. Traditionally, pizza often features a white flour crust, generous amounts of high-fat cheese, and processed meats. In this case, ham, while providing protein, can be high in sodium and often contains additives. The crust, particularly if thick or deep-dish, contributes a significant amount of refined carbohydrates and calories. The cheese, while a source of calcium and protein, can also be high in saturated fat.
However, the inclusion of mushrooms is a definite plus. Mushrooms are low in calories and provide fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants, contributing to the overall nutritional value and offering some beneficial micronutrients. The tomato sauce base also typically offers lycopene, an antioxidant, along with some vitamins. So, while ham and cheese can be problematic in large quantities, the mushrooms and tomato base do offer some redeeming qualities.
To make a Ham & Mushroom Pizza a healthier option, several modifications can be made. Opting for a thin, whole-wheat crust would significantly increase fiber content and reduce refined carbohydrates and overall calories. Choosing a leaner ham or reducing the amount used, and going for part-skim mozzarella or using cheese sparingly, can lower fat and sodium. Piling on more vegetables, beyond just mushrooms, would further boost nutrient intake. Ultimately, moderation is key; a single slice as part of a balanced meal is very different from consuming half or an entire large pizza.
Canon EOS 6D - f/2.8 - 1/100sec - 100 mm - ISO 100
- The Pick-a-Tom cherry tomato is a (self pinching) bushy tomato plant. At the time of purchase, already 25 to 30 cherry tomatoes are growing on the plant and the first fruits are starting to develop their signature red color. You can instantly start picking your very own tomatoes. The plant is about 40 cm high. Perfect for on a windowsill, or when it gets warmer, outside on a terrace.
Tomatoes contain lycopene. Lycopene gives tomatoes their nice red color and even better, it helps protect you against cancer, heart and vascular problems and many other age related ailments.
Delicious when eaten directly after picking. But the tomatoes can also be used as an ingredient in many other dishes like pasta's and salads. These tomatoes are really juicy and also extremely healthy.
- Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable ?
To really figure out if a tomato is a fruit or vegetable, you need to know what makes a fruit a fruit, and a vegetable a vegetable.
The big question to ask is, DOES IT HAVE SEEDS? If the answer is yes, then technically, (botanically) you have a FRUIT. This, of course, makes your tomato a fruit. It also makes cucumbers, squash, green beans and pumpkins all fruits as well.
Along with the fruit from a plant or tree, we can often eat the leaves (lettuce,) stems (celery,) roots (carrots,) and flowers (broccoli.) Many of these other parts of the plant are typically referred to as VEGETABLES. Now don’t go looking for tomatoes next to the oranges in your grocery stores; fruits like tomatoes and green beans are usually (alas, incorrectly) referred to as “vegetables” in most grocery stores and cookbooks.
This is one of the eating habits that I have adopted from my mother (she died November 21, 2010 at the age of 90) R.I.P.
Explore July 27th
Solanum lycopersicum.
Tomatoes are eaten throughout the world, and their consumption is believed to benefit the heart among other things. Lycopene, one of nature's most powerful antioxidants, is present in tomatoes, and, especially when tomatoes are cooked, has been found beneficial in preventing prostate cancer.
The town of Buñol, Spain, annually celebrates La Tomatina, a festival centered on an enormous tomato fight. Tomatoes are also a popular "non-lethal" 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 it is usually referenced as a mere metaphor. Embracing it for this protest connotation, the Dutch Socialist party adopted the tomato as their logo.
The tomato is the edible berry of the plant Solanum lycopersicum, commonly known as a tomato plant. The species originated in western South America and Central America. The Nahuatl (the language used by the Aztecs) word tomatl gave rise to the Spanish word tomate, from which the English word tomato derived. Its domestication and use as a cultivated food may have originated with the indigenous peoples of Mexico. The Aztecs used tomatoes in their cooking at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and after the Spanish encountered the tomato for the first time after their contact with the Aztecs, they brought the plant to Europe. From there, the tomato was introduced to other parts of the European-colonized world during the 16th century.
Tomatoes are a significant source of umami flavor. The tomato is consumed in diverse ways, raw or cooked, in many dishes, sauces, salads, and drinks. While tomatoes are fruits—botanically classified as berries—they are commonly used as a vegetable ingredient or side dish.
Numerous varieties of the tomato plant are widely grown in temperate climates across the world, with greenhouses allowing for the production of tomatoes throughout all seasons of the year. Tomato plants typically grow to 1–3 meters in height. They are vines that have a weak stem that sprawls and typically needs support. Indeterminate tomato plants are perennials in their native habitat, but are cultivated as annuals. (Determinate, or bush, plants are annuals that stop growing at a certain height and produce a crop all at once.) The size of the tomato varies according to the cultivar, with a range of 1–10 cm in width.
NAMES
ETYMOLOGY
The word tomato comes from the Spanish tomate, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl word tomatl [ˈtomat͡ɬ], meaning 'the swelling fruit'. The native Mexican tomatillo is tomate (Nahuatl: tomātl About this soundpronunciation (help·info), meaning 'fat water' or 'fat thing'). When Aztecs started to cultivate the fruit to be larger, sweeter, and red, they called the new species xitomatl (or jitomates) (pronounced [ʃiːˈtomatɬ]), ('plump with navel' or 'fat water with navel'). The scientific species epithet lycopersicum is interpreted literally from Latin in the 1753 book, Species Plantarum, as 'wolfpeach', where wolf is from lyco and peach is from persicum.
PRONUNCIATION
The usual pronunciations of tomato are /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ (usual in American English) and /təˈmɑːtoʊ/ (usual in British English). 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/") and have become a symbol for nitpicking pronunciation disputes. In this capacity, it has even become an American and British slang term: saying "/təˈmeɪtoʊ təˈmɑːtoʊ/" when presented with two choices can mean "What's the difference?" or "It's all the same to me".
FRUIT VERSUS VEGETABLE
Botanically, a tomato is a fruit—a berry, consisting of the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. However, the tomato is considered a "culinary vegetable" because it has a much lower sugar content than culinary fruits; it is typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, rather than as a dessert. Tomatoes are not the only food source with this ambiguity; bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans, eggplants, avocados, and squashes of all kinds (such as zucchini and pumpkins) are all botanically fruit, yet cooked as vegetables. This 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. The U.S. Supreme Court settled this controversy on May 10, 1893, by declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use—they are generally served with dinner and not dessert (Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304)). The holding of this case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff of 1883, and the court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purposes.
BOTANY
DESCRIPTION
Tomato plants are vines, initially decumbent, typically growing 180 cm or more above the ground if supported, although erect bush varieties have been bred, generally 100 cm tall or shorter. Indeterminate types are "tender" perennials, dying annually in temperate climates (they are originally native to tropical highlands), although they can live up to three years in a greenhouse in some cases. Determinate types are annual in all climates.
Tomato plants are dicots, and grow as a series of branching stems, with a terminal bud at the tip that does the actual growing. When that tip eventually stops growing, whether because of pruning or flowering, lateral buds take over and grow into other, fully functional, vines.
Tomato vines are typically pubescent, meaning covered with fine short hairs. These 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.
Most tomato plants have compound leaves, and are called regular leaf (RL) plants, but some cultivars have simple leaves known as potato leaf (PL) style because of their resemblance to that particular relative. Of RL plants, there are variations, such as rugose leaves, which are deeply grooved, and variegated, angora leaves, which have additional colors where a genetic mutation causes chlorophyll to be excluded from some portions of the leaves.
The leaves are 10–25 cm long, odd pinnate, with five to nine leaflets on petioles, each leaflet up to 8 cm long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy.
Their flowers, appearing on the apical meristem, have the anthers fused along the edges, forming a column surrounding the pistil's style. Flowers in domestic cultivars can be self-fertilizing. The flowers are 1–2 cm across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla; they are borne in a cyme of three to 12 together.
Although in culinary terms, tomato is regarded as a vegetable, its fruit is classified botanically as a berry. As a true fruit, it 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.
For propagation, the seeds need to come from a mature fruit, and be dried or fermented before germination.
CLASSIFICATION
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. This 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), this is not used because it violates the International Code of Nomenclature barring the use of tautonyms in botanical nomenclature. The corrected name Lycopersicon lycopersicum (Nicolson 1974) was technically valid, since Miller's genus name and Linnaeus's species name differ in exact spelling, but since 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.
Genetic evidence has now shown that Linnaeus was correct to put the tomato in the genus Solanum, making Solanum lycopersicum the correct name. 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 in 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.
GENETIC MODIFICATION
Tomatoes that have been modified using genetic engineering have been developed, and although none are commercially available now, they have been in the past. The first commercially available genetically modified food was a variety of tomato named the Flavr Savr, which was engineered to have a longer shelf life. Scientists are continuing to develop tomatoes with new traits not found in natural crops, such as increased resistance to pests or environmental stresses. Other projects aim to enrich tomatoes with substances that may offer health benefits or provide better nutrition.
An international consortium of researchers from 10 countries, among them researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, began sequencing the tomato genome in 2004, and is creating a database of genomic sequences and information on the tomato and related plants. A prerelease version of the genome was made available in December 2009. The genomes of its mitochondria and chloroplasts are also being sequenced as part of the project. The complete genome for the cultivar Heinz 1706 was published on 31 May 2012 in Nature. Since many other fruits, like strawberries, apples, melons, and bananas share the same characteristics and genes, researchers stated the published genome could help to improve food quality, food security and reduce costs of all of these fruits.
BREEDING
The Tomato Genetic Resource Center, Germplasm Resources Information Network, AVRDC, and numerous seed banks around the world store seed representing genetic variations of value to modern agriculture. These seed stocks are available for legitimate breeding and research efforts. While individual breeding efforts can produce useful results, the bulk of tomato breeding work is at universities and major agriculture-related corporations. These efforts have resulted in significant regionally adapted breeding lines and hybrids, such as the Mountain series from North Carolina. Corporations including Heinz, Monsanto, BHNSeed, and Bejoseed have breeding programs that attempt to improve production, size, shape, color, flavor, disease tolerance, pest tolerance, nutritional value, and numerous other traits.
HISTORY
The wild ancestor of the tomato is native to western South America. These wild versions were the size of peas. Aztecs and other peoples in Mesoamerica were the first to have domesticated the fruit and used in their cooking. 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 belladonna. This was exacerbated by the interaction of the tomato's acidic juice with pewter plates. The leaves and immature fruit contains tomatine, which in large quantities would be toxic. However, the ripe fruit contains no tomatine.
MESOAMERICA
The exact date of domestication is unknown; by 500 BC, it was already being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas. The Pueblo people are thought to have believed that those who witnessed the ingestion of tomato seeds were blessed with 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.
The Aztecs raised several varieties of tomato, with red tomatoes called xictomatl and green tomatoes called tomatl (Tomatillo). According to Bernardino de Sahagún he saw 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. Bernardino de Sahagún mentioned Aztecs cooking various sauces, some with and without tomatoes of different sizes, serving them in city markets: "foods sauces, hot sauces; fried [food], olla-cooked [food], juices, sauces of juices, shredded [food] with chile, with squash seeds [most likely Cucurbita pepo], with tomatoes, with smoked chile, with hot chile, with yellow chile, with mild red chile sauce, yellow chile sauce, hot chile sauce, with "bird excrement" sauce, sauce of smoked chile, heated [sauces], bean sauce; [he sells] toasted beans, cooked beans, mushroom sauce, sauce of small squash, sauce of large tomatoes, sauce of ordinary tomatoes, sauce of various kinds of sour herbs, avocado sauce."
SPANISH DISTRIBUTION
Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés may have been the first to transfer a small yellow tomato to Europe after he captured the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, in 1521. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in a herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist, who suggested that a new type of eggplant had been brought to Italy that 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. It was not until ten years later that tomatoes were named in print by Mattioli as pomi d'oro, or "golden apples".
After the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Spanish distributed the tomato throughout their colonies in the Caribbean. They also took it to the Philippines, from where it spread to southeast Asia and then the entire Asian continent. The Spanish also brought the tomato to Europe. It grew easily in Mediterranean climates, and 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.
CHINA
The tomato was introduced to China, likely via the Philippines or Macau, in the 1500s. It was given the name fānqié (barbarian eggplant), as the Chinese named many foodstuffs introduced from abroad, but referring specifically to early introductions.
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". 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, even 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. 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. The earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources.
Unique varieties were developed over the next several hundred years for uses such as dried tomatoes, sauce tomatoes, pizza tomatoes, and tomatoes for long-term storage. These varieties are usually known for their place of origin as much as by a variety name. For example, Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio is the "hanging tomato of Vesuvius" or the Pomodoro di Pachino and Pomodorino di Manduria.
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 (in fact, the plant and raw fruit do have low levels of tomatine, but are not generally dangerous; see below). Gerard's views were influential, and the tomato was considered unfit for eating (though not necessarily poisonous) for many years in Britain and its North American colonies.
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.
INDIA
The tomato arrived in India by the way of Portuguese explorers, in the 16th century. It was grown from the 18th century onwards for the British. Even today, in Bengal, the alternative name is "Biliti Begun" (Bengali: বিলিতি বেগুন), meaning "Foreign Eggplant" It was then adopted widely as it is well suited to India's climate, with Uttarakhand as one of the main producers.
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
The tomato was introduced to cultivation in the Middle East by John Barker, British consul in Aleppo circa 1799 to 1825. 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". Today, the tomato is a critical 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.
NORTH AMERICA
The earliest reference to tomatoes being grown in British North America is from 1710, when herbalist William Salmon reported seeing them in what is today South Carolina. They may have been introduced from the Caribbean. By the mid-18th century, they were cultivated on some Carolina plantations, and probably in other parts of the Southeast as well. Possibly, some people continued to think tomatoes were poisonous at this time; and in general, they were grown more as ornamental plants than as food. Thomas Jefferson, who ate tomatoes in Paris, sent some seeds back to America.
Early tomato breeders included Henry Tilden in Iowa and a Dr. Hand in Baltimore.
Alexander W. Livingston receives much credit for developing numerous varieties of tomato for both home and commercial gardeners. 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, which was said to be involved in the parentage of most of the tomatoes introduced by him and his competitors for the next twenty-five years.
When Livingston began his attempts to develop the tomato as a commercial crop, his aim had been to grow tomatoes smooth in contour, uniform in size, and sweet in flavor. In 1870, Livingston introduced the Paragon, and tomato culture soon became a great enterprise in the county. He eventually developed over seventeen different varieties of the tomato plant. Today, the crop is grown in every state in the Union.
Because of the long growing season needed for this heat-loving crop, several states in the US Sun Belt became major tomato-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 (UC Davis) became a major center for research on the tomato. The C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center at UC Davis is a gene bank of wild relatives, monogenic mutants and miscellaneous genetic stocks of tomato. The center is named for the late Dr. Charles M. Rick, a pioneer in tomato genetics research. Research on processing tomatoes is also conducted by the California Tomato Research Institute in Escalon, California.
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 in soil that retains moisture, such as clayey soil.
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 that ripened "u"niformly. This was widely cross-bred to produce red fruit without the typical green ring around the stem on uncross-bred varieties. Prior to general introduction of this trait, most tomatoes produced more sugar during ripening, and were sweeter and more flavorful.
Evidence has been found that 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 genetic 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 sugars accumulation in the resulting ripe fruit by 10–15%. Perhaps more important than their role in photosynthesis, 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, 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.
Furthermore, breeders of modern tomato cultivars typically strive to produce tomato plants exhibiting improved yield, shelf life, size, and tolerance/resistance to various environmental pressures, including disease. However, these breeding efforts have yielded unintended negative consequences on various tomato fruit attributes. For instance, linkage drag is a phenomenon that has been responsible for alterations in the metabolism of the tomato fruit. Linkage drag describes the introduction of an undesired trait or allele into a plant during backcrossing. This trait/allele is physically linked (or is very close) to the desired allele along the chromosome. In introducing the beneficial allele, there exists a high likelihood that the poor allele is also incorporated into the plant. Thus, breeding efforts attempting to enhance certain traits (for example: larger fruit size) have unintentionally altered production of chemicals associated with, for instance, nutritional value and flavor.
Breeders have turned to using wild tomato species as a source of alleles for the introduction of beneficial traits into modern tomato varieties. For example, wild tomato relatives may possess higher amounts of fruit solids (which are associated with greater sugar content) or resistance to diseases caused by microbes, such as resistance towards the early blight pathogen Alternaria solani. However, this tactic has limitations, for the incorporation of certain traits, such as pathogen resistance, can negatively impact other favorable phenotypes (fruit production, etc.).
CULTIVATION
The tomato is grown worldwide for its edible fruits, with thousands of cultivars. A fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 5–10–10 is often sold as tomato fertilizer or vegetable fertilizer, although manure and compost are also used.
DISEASES,PESTS AND DISORDERS
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, V – verticillium wilt, F – fusarium wilt strain I, FF – fusarium wilt strain I and II, N – nematodes, T – tobacco mosaic virus, and A – alternaria.
Some common tomato pests are stink bugs, cutworms, tomato hornworms and tobacco hornworms, aphids, cabbage loopers, whiteflies, tomato fruitworms, flea beetles, red spider mite, slugs,[56] 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.
A common tomato disease is tobacco mosaic virus. Handling cigarettes and other infected tobacco products can transmit the virus to tomato plants.
Another particularly dreaded 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.
After an insect attack tomato plants produce systemin, a plant peptide hormone . Systemin activates defensive mechanisms, such as the production of protease inhibitors to slow the growth of insects. The hormone was first identified in tomatoes, but similar proteins have been identified in other species since.
Although not a disease as such, irregular supplies of water can cause growing or ripening fruit to split. Besides cosmetic damage, the splits may allow decay to start, although growing fruits have some ability to heal after a split. In addition, a deformity called cat-facing can be caused by pests, temperature stress, or poor soil conditions. Affected fruit usually remains edible, but its appearance may be unsightly.
COMPANION PLANTS
Tomatoes serve, or are served by, a large variety of companion plants.
Among the most famous pairings is the tomato plant and carrots; studies supporting this relationship have produced a popular book about companion planting, Carrots Love Tomatoes.
The devastating tomato hornworm has a major predator in various parasitic wasps, whose larvae devour the hornworm, but whose adult form drinks nectar from tiny-flowered plants like umbellifers. Several species of umbellifer are therefore often grown with tomato plants, including parsley, Queen Anne's lace, and occasionally dill. These also attract predatory flies that attack various tomato pests.
Borage is thought to repel the tomato hornworm moth.
Plants with strong scents, like alliums (onions, chives, garlic), mints (basil, oregano, spearmint) and French marigold, (Tagetes patula) are thought to mask the scent of the tomato plant, making it harder for pests to locate it, or to provide an alternative landing point, reducing the odds of the pests from attacking the correct plant. These plants may also subtly affect the flavor of tomato fruit.
Tomato plants can protect asparagus from asparagus beetles, because they contain solanine that kills this pest, while asparagus plants contain Asparagusic acid that repels nematodes known to attack tomato plants. Marigolds also repel nematodes.
POLLINATION
In the wild, original state, tomatoes required cross-pollination; they were much more self-incompatible than domestic cultivars. As a floral device to reduce selfing, the pistil of wild tomatoes extends farther out of the flower than today's cultivars. The stamens were, and remain, entirely within the closed corolla.
As tomatoes were moved from their native areas, their traditional pollinators, (probably a species of halictid bee) did not move with them. The trait of self-fertility became an advantage, and domestic cultivars of tomato have been selected to maximize this trait.
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 (one brand of vibrator is a wand called an "electric bee" that is used manually), or more often today, by cultured bumblebees. The anther of a tomato flower is shaped like a hollow tube, with the pollen produced within the structure, rather than on the surface, as in most species. The pollen moves through pores in the anther, but very little pollen is shed without some kind of externally-induced motion. The ideal vibratory frequencies to release pollen grains are provided by an insect, such as a bumblebee, or the original wild halictid pollinator, capable of engaging in a behavior known as buzz pollination, which honey bees cannot perform. In an outdoors setting, wind or animals usually provide sufficient motion to produce commercially viable crops.
FRUIT FORMATION
Pollination and fruit formation depend on meiosis. Meiosis is central to the processes by which diploid microspore mother cells within the anther give rise to haploid pollen grains, and megaspore mother cells in ovules that are contained within the ovary give rise to haploid nuclei. Union of haploid nuclei from pollen and ovule (fertilization) can occur either by self- or cross-pollination. Fertilization leads to the formation of a diploid zygote that can then develop into an embryo within the emerging seed. Repeated fertilizations within the ovary are accompanied by maturation of the ovary to form the tomato fruit.
Homologs of the recA gene, including rad51, play a key role in homologous recombinational repair of DNA during meiosis. A rad51 homolog is present in the anther of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), suggesting that recombinational repair occurs during meiosis in tomato.
HYDROPONIC AND GREENHOUSE CULTIVATION
Tomatoes are often grown in greenhouses in cooler climates, and cultivars such as the British 'Moneymaker' and a number of cultivars grown in Siberia are specifically bred for indoor growing. In more temperate climates, it is not uncommon to start seeds in greenhouses during the late winter for future transplant.
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.
Hydroponic technique is often used in hostile growing environments, as well as high-density plantings.
PICKING AND RIPENING
To facilitate transportation and storage, tomatoes are often picked unripe (green) and ripened in storage with ethylene.
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 processed tomatoes produced in the world.
In 1994, Calgene introduced a genetically modified tomato called the FlavrSavr, which could be vine ripened without compromising shelf life. However, the product was not commercially successful, and was sold only until 1997.
YIELD
The world dedicated 4.8 million hectares in 2012 for tomato cultivation and the total production was about 161.8 million tonnes. The average world farm yield for tomato was 33.6 tonnes per hectare, in 2012.
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).
RECORDS
As of 2008, the heaviest tomato harvested, weighed 3.51 kg, was of the cultivar "Delicious", and was grown by Gordon Graham of Edmond, Oklahoma in 1986. The largest tomato plant grown was of the cultivar "Sungold" and reached 19.8 m in length, grown by Nutriculture Ltd (UK) of Mawdesley, Lancashire, UK, in 2000.
A massive "tomato tree" growing inside the Walt Disney World Resort's experimental greenhouses in Lake Buena Vista, Florida may have been the largest single tomato plant in the world. The plant has been recognized as a Guinness World Record Holder, with a harvest of more than 32,000 tomatoes and a total weight of 522 kg It yielded thousands of tomatoes at one time from a single vine. Yong Huang, Epcot's manager of agricultural science, discovered the unique plant in Beijing, China. Huang brought its seeds to Epcot and created the specialized greenhouse for the fruit to grow. The vine grew golf ball-sized tomatoes, which were served at Walt Disney World restaurants.[citation needed] The tree developed a disease and was removed in April 2010 after about 13 months of life.
PRODUCTION
In 2019, world production of tomatoes was 181 million tonnes, with China accounting for 35% of the total, followed by India and Turkey as major producers (table).
CONSUMPTION
Though it is botanically a berry, a subset of fruit, the tomato is a vegetable for culinary purposes because of its savory flavor (see below).
Although tomatoes originated in the Americas, they have become extensively used in Mediterranean cuisine. Ripe tomatoes contain significant umami flavor and they are a key ingredient in pizza, and are commonly used in pasta sauces. They are also used in gazpacho (Spanish cuisine) and pa amb tomàquet (Catalan cuisine).
The tomato is now grown and eaten around the world. It is used in diverse ways, including raw in salads or in slices, stewed, incorporated into a wide variety of dishes, or processed into ketchup or tomato soup. Unripe green tomatoes can also be breaded and fried, used to make salsa, or pickled. Tomato juice is sold as a drink, and is used in cocktails such as the Bloody Mary.
STORAGE
Tomatoes keep best unwashed at room temperature and out of direct sunlight. It is not recommended to refrigerate them as this can harm the flavor. Tomatoes stored cold tend to lose their flavor permanently.
Storing stem down can prolong shelf life, as it may keep from rotting too quickly.
Tomatoes that are not yet ripe can be kept in a paper bag till ripening.
Tomatoes are easy to preserve whole, in pieces, as tomato sauce or paste by home canning. They are acidic enough to process in a water bath rather than a pressure cooker as most vegetables require. The fruit is also preserved by drying, often in the sun, and sold either in bags or in jars with oil.
SAFETY
PLANT TOXICITY
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. They also contain small amounts of solanine, a toxic alkaloid found in potato leaves and other plants in the nightshade family. However, solanine concentrations in foliage and green fruit are generally too small to be dangerous unless large amounts are consumed—for example, as greens.
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. 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.
Tomato plants can be toxic to dogs if they eat large amounts of the fruit, or chew plant material.
SALMONELLA
Tomatoes were linked to seven Salmonella outbreaks between 1990 and 2005, and may have been the cause of a salmonellosis outbreak causing 172 illnesses in 18 US states in 2006. The 2008 United States salmonellosis outbreak caused the temporary removal of tomatoes from stores and restaurants across the United States and parts of Canada, although other foods, including jalapeño and serrano peppers, may have been involved.
NUTRITION
A tomato is 95% water, contains 4% carbohydrates and less than 1% each of fat and protein (table). In a 100 gram amount, raw tomatoes supply 18 calories and are a moderate source of vitamin C (17% of the Daily Value), but otherwise are absent of significant nutrient content (table).
RESEARCH
No conclusive evidence indicates that the lycopene in tomatoes or in supplements affects the onset of cardiovascular diseases or cancer.
In the United States, supposed health benefits of consuming tomatoes, tomato products or lycopene to affect cancer cannot be mentioned on packaged food products without a qualified health claim statement. 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 that the evidence for lycopene having any of these effects was inconclusive.
HOST PLANT
The Potato Tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella) is an oligophagous insect that prefers to feed on plants of the family Solanaceae such as tomato plants. Female P. operculella use the leaves to lay their eggs and the hatched larvae will eat away at the mesophyll of the leaf.
IN POPULAR CULTURE
On 30 August 2007, 40,000 Spaniards gathered in Buñol to throw 115,000 kg of tomatoes at each other in the yearly Tomatina festival.
In Ontario, Canada, member of provincial parliament Mike Colle introduced a private member's bill in March 2016 to name the tomato as the official vegetable of the province and to designate 15 July as Tomato Day, in order to acknowledge the tomato's importance in Ontario's agriculture. The bill did not pass in the legislature and no official designations were made.
Tomatoes have been designated the state vegetable of New Jersey. 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. In 2009, the state of Ohio passed a law making the tomato the state's official fruit. Tomato juice has been the official beverage of Ohio since 1965. Alexander W. Livingston, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, played a large part in popularizing the tomato in the late 19th century; his efforts are commemorated in Reynoldsburg with an annual Tomato Festival.
Flavr Savr was the first commercially grown genetically engineered food licensed for human consumption.
The town of Buñol, Spain, annually celebrates La Tomatina, a festival centered on an enormous tomato fight. 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 US city of Reynoldsburg, Ohio calls itself "The Birthplace of the Tomato", claiming the first commercial variety of tomato was bred there in the 19th century.
Several US states have adopted the tomato as a state fruit or vegetable (see above).
"Rotten Tomatoes" is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The name "Rotten Tomatoes" derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a poor stage performance. "Rotten Tomatoes" took the tomato metaphor further by rating films as Certified Fresh if they got a score of 75% or higher, Fresh for films with a score of 60% or higher that do not meet the requirements for the Certified Fresh seal, and Rotten for films with a score of 0–59%.
WIKIPEDIA
Wiki tells us
Parsley or garden parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is a species of Petroselinum in the family Apiaceae, native to the central Mediterranean region (southern Italy, Algeria, and Tunisia), naturalized elsewhere in Europe, and widely cultivated as a herb, a spice, and a vegetable.
Where it grows as a biennial, in the first year, it forms a rosette of tripinnate leaves 10–25 cm long with numerous 1–3 cm leaflets, and a taproot used as a food store over the winter.
Parsley is widely used in Middle Eastern, European, and American cooking. Curly leaf parsley is often used as a garnish. In central and eastern Europe and in western Asia, many dishes are served with fresh green chopped parsley sprinkled on top. Root parsley is very common in central and eastern European cuisines, where it is used as a snack or a vegetable in many soups, stews, and casseroles.
The word "parsley" is a merger of the Old English petersilie (which is identical to the contemporary German word for parsley: Petersilie) and the Old French peresil, both derived from Medieval Latin petrosilium, from Latin petroselinum, the latinization of the Greek πετροσέλινον (petroselinon), "rock-parsley", from πέτρα (petra), "rock, stone", + σέλινον (selinon), "parsley".
Garden parsley is a bright green, biennial, plant in temperate climates, or an annual herb in subtropical and tropical areas.
Where it grows as a biennial, in the first year, it forms a rosette of tripinnate leaves 10–25 cm long with numerous 1–3 cm leaflets, and a taproot used as a food store over the winter. In the second year, it grows a flowering stem to 75 cm tall with sparser leaves and flat-topped 3–10 cm diameter umbels with numerous 2 mm diameter yellow to yellowish-green flowers. The seeds are ovoid, 2–3 mm long, with prominent style remnants at the apex. One of the compounds of the essential oil is apiol. The plant normally dies after seed maturation.
Parsley grows best in moist, well-drained soil, with full sun. It grows best between 22–30 °C, and usually is grown from seed. Germination is slow, taking four to six weeks, and it often is difficult because of furanocoumarins in its seed coat. Typically, plants grown for the leaf crop are spaced 10 cm apart, while those grown as a root crop are spaced 20 cm apart to allow for the root development.
Parsley attracts several species of wildlife. Some swallowtail butterflies use parsley as a host plant for their larvae; their caterpillars are black and green striped with yellow dots, and will feed on parsley for two weeks before turning into butterflies. Bees and other nectar-feeding insects also visit the flowers. Birds such as the goldfinch feed on the seeds.
Parsley is widely used in Middle Eastern, European, and American cooking. Curly leaf parsley is used often as a garnish. In central and eastern Europe and in western Asia, many dishes are served with fresh green, chopped parsley sprinkled on top. Green parsley is used frequently as a garnish on potato dishes (boiled or mashed potatoes), on rice dishes (risotto or pilaf), on fish, fried chicken, lamb, goose, and steaks, as well in meat or vegetable stews (such as beef bourguignon, goulash, or chicken paprikash).
In southern and central Europe, parsley is part of bouquet garni, a bundle of fresh herbs used as an ingredient in stocks, soups, and sauces. Freshly chopped green parsley is used as a topping for soups such as chicken soup, green salads, or salads such as salade Olivier, and on open sandwiches with cold cuts or pâtés. Parsley is a key ingredient in several Middle Eastern salads such as tabbouleh. Persillade is a mixture of chopped garlic and chopped parsley in French cuisine. Gremolata, a mixture of parsley, garlic, and lemon zest, is a traditional accompaniment to the Italian veal stew, ossobuco alla milanese.
Parsley is the main ingredient in Italian salsa verde, which is a mixed condiment of parsley, capers, anchovies, garlic, and bread soaked in vinegar. It is an Italian custom to serve it with bollito misto or fish.
Root parsley is very common in central and eastern European cuisines, where it is used as a snack or a vegetable in many soups, stews, and casseroles.
In England, parsley sauce is a roux-based sauce, commonly served over fish or gammon.
In Serbia it is used as an ingredient for broth.
Parsley is a source of Flavonoid, and Antioxidants (especially luteolin), apigenin, folic acid, vitamin K, vitamin C, and vitamin A. Half a of tablespoon (a gram) of dried parsley contains about 6.0 µg of lycopene and 10.7 µg of alpha carotene as well as 82.9 µg of Lutein+Zeaxanthin and 80.7 µg of beta carotene.
Excessive consumption of parsley should be avoided by pregnant women. It is safe in normal food quantities, but large amounts may have uterotonic effects.
Or, as I would put it - parsley's nice.
Bright red cellophane-wrapped watermelons share stall space with other tropical fruits at the Batista Campos street market, Belém.
The result. Two glasses of odd-looking but very tasty tomato juice. Packed with vitamin C and lycopene.
Lycopenophila
.Most often paired with images of plump, vine-ripened tomatoes, lycopene is a nutrient that holds promise as a wonderful antioxidant.
From my garden
Aug 17, 2014
~From February this year.A month of good byes and brief hellos to many veggies, fruits and flowers....
~When Red carrots of winter are still available in their extra sweetness~
~When Sapota (Achras zapota)/Chiku are in abundance after their first season of harvest in Feb-March;the second being May-June.~
~When the the Red Silk Cotton tree(Bombax Malabaricum) blooms( called 'Simal', 'Pagun' etc in North India) turn out in large numbers in bright red on trees bereft of leaves.
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Ref:
1)http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk; 2)http://nhb.gov.in/; 3)http://chestofbooks.com/; 4)http://fruuits.blogspot.com/; 5)http://www.indianetzone.com/
Copyright: © 2009 Melissa Goodman. All Rights Reserved.
(Please, while I appreciate the idea of sharing, no multiple invitations .. thanks!)
.....in an outside greengrocer's display. Warminster, Wiltshire.
The word "tomato" may refer to the plant (Solanum lycopersicum) or the edible, typically red, fruit that it bears. Having originated in America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler climates.
The tomato is consumed in diverse ways, including raw, as an ingredient in many dishes and sauces, and in drinks. While it is botanically a fruit, it is considered a vegetable for culinary purposes (as well as by the United States Supreme Court, see Nix v. Hedden), which has caused some confusion. The fruit is rich in lycopene, which may have beneficial health effects.
The tomato belongs to the nightshade family. The plants typically grow to 1–3 meters (3–10 ft) in height and have a weak stem that often sprawls over the ground and vines over other plants. It is a perennial in its native habitat, although often grown outdoors in temperate climates as an annual. An average common tomato weighs 102–105 grams.
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Although the settlement of Warminster dates from Saxon times, the downs around the today's town were occupied by Iron Age people who left their earthworks, including hill forts and barrow mounds, behind them. Battlesbury Camp is one of the major Iron Age hill forts in Britain.
Warminster's later history was peaceful and prosperous. In the Middle Ages the town became famous not only for its wool and cloth trade but also for its great prosperity as a corn market (it was second only to Bristol in the West of England). Many of the buildings which survive in the Market Place owe their origin to the great corn market days when they were used as stores and warehouses, or as inns and hostelries for the buyers and sellers who came from many miles around.
During the Civil War (1642-1645) the town is thought to have changed hands at least four times between the Royalist and Parliamentary supporters. When James II came to the throne in 1685 the local gentry and the Wiltshire Militia supported him against the Duke of Monmouth who was defeated.
When the writer William Cobbett visited the area in 1826 he found it a fertile and productive region of, for the most part, arable farming with also the rearing of thousands of sheep. He said the stock production yielded "beautiful meat - the best I have seen anywhere." And, he described Warminster as "solid and good."
During the First World War thousands of soldiers from Australia, New Zealand and Canada were camped in the villages around Warminster, prior to the invasion of France. Sutton Veny and Codford have ANZAC cemeteries (here lay the victims of a flu epidemic) and an annual ANZAC Day service is held on the Sunday nearest to 25th April. Buildings in the town were used as billets for American troops during the Second World War and among the celebrities who came to entertain them were film star James Cagney and boxer Joe Louis.
E numbers are number codes for food additives and are usually found on food labels throughout the European Union.[citation needed] The numbering scheme follows that of the International Numbering System (INS) as determined by the Codex Alimentarius committee. Only a subset of the INS additives are approved for use in the European Union, the 'E' prefix which stands for Europe. In casual language in the UK and Ireland, the term "E-number" is used as a pejorative term for artificial food additives, and products may promote themselves as "free of E-numbers" even though most of the (natural) ingredients contain components that also have an E-number (e.g. Vitamin C (E300) or lycopene (E160d), the colour in tomatoes). To have a diet without any components that also have an E-number is basically impossible. Free of E-numbers thus refers mainly to the use of additives, not to the absence of components with an E-number.
E numbers are also encountered on food labelling in other jurisdictions, including the GCC, Australia, New Zealand and Israel. The "E" prefix is omitted in Australia and New Zealand. They are increasingly (though still rarely) found on North American packaging, especially in Canada.
Read more en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_number