Abstract
Tomato is one of the world's most consumed vegetables, and thus, various cultivars have been developed. Therefore, metabolic differences and nutrient contents of various tomatoes need to be discovered. To do so, we performed metabolite profiling along with evaluation of morphological and physicochemical properties of five representative tomato types. Common tomato cultivars, bigger and heavier than other tomatoes, contained higher levels of amino acids, organic acids, and lipids. On the contrary, cherry tomato cultivars contained a higher proportion of phenylpropanoids, lycopene, β-carotene, and α-carotene than the other tomatoes. Also, the highest antioxidant activity and total phenolic and flavonoid contents were observed in cherry tomato cultivars. Furthermore, to understand metabolic distributions in various tomato cultivars, we constructed a metabolic pathway map. The higher metabolic flux distribution of most primary metabolite synthetic pathways was observed in common tomatoes, while cherry tomato cultivars showed a significantly elevated flux in secondary metabolite synthetic pathways. Accordingly, these results provide valuable information of different characteristics in various tomatoes, which can be considered while purchasing and improving tomato cultivars.
Highlights
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the superfoods and known as an intensely nutritious and healthy food [1]
We examined the morphological and physicochemical characteristics and antioxidant activities of five types of tomato to evaluate the palatability and quality parameters (Tables 1, 2 and Figures 1, 2)
We can guess that various tomatoes with different appearances may contain different nutrients and have different effects on human
Summary
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the superfoods and known as an intensely nutritious and healthy food [1]. The health beneficial effects of tomatoes such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-atherogenic properties, reducing risk of cardiovascular diseases, have been intensively studied [2,3,4,5]. Due to the benefits of tomatoes and growing interest in health, it became a highly popular fruit [6]. The worldwide production of tomato has been gradually increased from 153.31 Mt (in 2010) to 182.26 Mt (in 2018) [7]. In order to follow food market trends, a myriad of new tomatoes, over 10,000 cultivars, have been developed to improve flavors, nutrients, and appearances [8, 9].
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