Abstract
Regina tomato, a locally cultivated Italian landrace, is listed as an item in the ‘List of Traditional Agri-Food Products’ of the Italian Department for Agriculture and itemised as ‘Slow Food presidium’ by the Slow Food Foundation. It is classified as a long-storage tomato since it can be preserved for several months after harvest thanks to its thick and coriaceous skin. Three ecotypes were investigated for main physical and chemical traits both at harvest and after three months of storage. Experimental results indicate that this tomato landrace has a qualitative profile characterized by high concentrations of tocopherols, lycopene and ascorbic acid (maximum 28.6 and 53.7 mg/kg fresh weight, FW, and 0.28 mg/g FW, respectively) even after a long storage time, together with lower average Total Soluble Solids. The initial and post-storage contents of the bioactive compounds changed at a different rate in each ecotype (i.e., in Monopoli Regina tomato the highest content of α-Tocopherol, thereafter reduced to the same level of the other two ecotypes). These results indicate unique and unmistakable features of this long-storage tomato, closely linked to the geographic origin area that include both natural (available technical inputs) and human (specific cultural practices) factors.
Highlights
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a species of great economic importance, which is widely cultivated all over the world
These results suggest that different ecotypes did not affect form and size of the Regina tomato (RT) fruits, whereas Total Soluble Solids (TSS) was influenced by different ecotypes as well as by environmental conditions
Is the European country with the largest number of regional origin food products recognized by specific marks such as Protected Designation of Origin and the Protected Geographical
Summary
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a species of great economic importance, which is widely cultivated all over the world. Tomato was introduced from America to Europe at the beginning of the Sixteenth century with greater success especially in the Mediterranean countries [2]. In Italy, this species found a secondary centre of diversification, since several landraces developed in different regions as a consequence of the adaptation to different environmental and cultivation conditions [3]. This allowed the diffusion of different fruit typologies such as flat, angled, ribbed, pear-shaped, heart-shaped, elongated as well as oval/round, cherry and plum forms [2,4]. It is important to highlight that a landrace, called local variety, farmer’s variety, folk variety, is a population of a crop characterized by greater or lesser genetic variation, is well identifiable and which usually has a local name [6]
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