Elucidating how the chemical-nutritional composition of tomato is affected by the environment, season, and growing system

Abstract

Tomatoes play an important nutritional role due to the chemical-nutritional composition of this fruit, and its common use in dishes and food products. Its fruits provide pronounced antioxidant properties to the human diet, because of the presence of vitamin C, carotenogenic compounds such as lycopene and β-carotene, and phytochemicals such as flavonoids. Despite this, the antioxidant function and carotenoid levels in tomato may present significant differences depending on the system of cultivation, growing season, and environment in which this vegetable is cultivated. In light of this, this study aimed to assess the effects of the cultivation system known as “Viçosa”, in relation to traditional tomato cultivation systems, over two seasons. This assessment was done both under field conditions and in a controlled environment. The nutritional aspects of the fruits, such as the levels of phenolic compounds, lycopene, beta-carotene, and antioxidant activity, were analyzed. The controlled environment in the autumn-winter season, associated with the Viçosa cultivation system, facilitated increases in the lycopene content. Furthermore, field cultivation provided an increase of 68% and 38% in the total phenolic concentration in tomato fruits, in the spring-summer and autumn-winter seasons, respectively. Field cultivation also provided an increase of 31% in the antioxidant activity of the fruits, compared with that of the controlled cultivation, in the autumn-winter season. The increase in the levels of total phenolics and antioxidant activity of fruits due to cultivation in the field represents an advantage as cultivation in this environment has a lower cost than cultivation in a controlled environment. The cultivation systems did not influence the chemical-nutritional aspects of fruits; moreover, the Viçosa system brings together aspects such as high productivity and profitability, without compromising the chemical-nutritional aspects of the fruits, thereby configuring a promising system for tomato production.