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Latin name: Lycopersion enculentum; Family: Solanaceae
Annual herbaceous
plant with divided leaves and fragrant yellow flowers and in stars. She is part
of the Solanaceae family as the potato, pepper, eggplant, tobacco.
History
The tomato is native
to the Peruvian Andes and Mexico where the Incas cultivated long before
Columbus. The original tomato was the size of a cherry with the Aztec name of
"tomalt." It still exists in the wild in Mexico. The conquering
Spaniards reported in Europe. From 1544, the writings of some Mathiolus. give
him a reputation as an aphrodisiac to which it owes its name of "love
apple." The Italians adopted and named "pomo d'oro". They began
to eat from the 16em century, while other European countries, cultivated as an
ornamental plant, still treat it as poisonous because of his kinship with belladonna
and tobacco. At the end of the eighteenth century in Italy, she began to be
cultivated on a large scale for the first feed manufacturing tomato sauce. It
is finally the early twentieth century it spread through the temperate regions
of the world to finally conquer …America, the country of origin! Total
production now exceeds 70 million tonnes and in fact the vegetable most
consumed fruit in the world.
Parts used: fruit.
Main components:
The fruit contains
90% water, 3-4% of various sugars, a small amount of proteins, lipids and
organic acids. It is rich in vitamins A and C. Fruit color is due to pigments,
including carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, lutein and lycopene (vivid red
pigment close to the carotene).
Components (g/100g)
Carbohydrate 2.80; Proteins
0.80; Fat 0.10; Water 94.0, Dietary Fiber 1.20
Vitamins
(mg/100g)
Vitamin C (ascorbic
Acts) 18.00; Provitamin A (carotene) 0.60, Vitamin B1 (thiamine) 0.06, Vitamin
B2 (riboflavin), 0.04; Vitamin B3 or PP (nicotinamide) 0.60, Vitamin B5 (Acts
panothénique) 0.280; Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) 0.080; Vitamin B8 (biotin) 0.001;
Vitamin B9 (folic Acts) 0.020, Vitamin E (tocopherols) 1000
Minerals (mg/100g)
Phosphorus 24.00;
Calcium 9.0; Magnesium 11.00; Sulfur 11.00; Sodium 5.00; Chlorine 51.00; Bore 0.10;Iron
0.50, Copper 0.06; Zinc 0.14; Manganese
0.110; Nickel0.023; Cobalt 0.009; Chrome 0.005; Fluorine 0.024 ;Iodine 0.002
* Average
composition per 100 g net
Fruit color is due to
pigments, including carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, lutein and lycopene
(vivid red pigment close to the carotene).
By transgenic
techniques, various proteins such as alpha interferon, erythropoietin, serum
albumin, antibodies, protein envelopes of viruses, toxins, have been produced
by the tomato
The main active ingredients
Lycopene:
• Powerful
antioxidant.
• Regulates
cholesterol, cardiovascular protective.
• Protects the
digestive system.
• Protects the skin
from UV and pollution
• Stimulates the
immune system
Lycopene is the main
carotenoid of tomato fruit (Lycopersicon esculentum). The carotenoid
composition and concentration are highly dependent on the tomato variety and
maturity of the fruit.
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| Lycopene in tomato juice |
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| Lycopene in tomato cells |
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Vitamin C
The human body can
store a portion of this vitamin when his food intake is high. Blood levels of
vitamin C is 2 to 7 mg / l.
The food industry
uses the L-ascorbic acid as an antioxidant under reference E300 (europe). It is
a reducing agent which reacts with the oxygen in the air. This prevents the
oxygen to oxidize other organic molecules, which cause rancidity (bad taste) or
a change in color (browning) (Multimedia Encyclopedia Universalis, 1998).
The tocopherol (vitamin E)
Vitamin
anti-infertility, essential for the immune, muscular and nervous systems through
its large antioxidant properties, it is also involved in various phases of
metabolism: protection Non Saturated Fatty Acids. It also has a protective
effect against cancer, cancer of the prostate and cancer of the intestinal
tract. (Mr. Gerber, 1999)
This is a molecule of
formula C31H52O3 (phenolic function)
Vitamin E is the
third antioxidant tomato (after lycopene and ascorbic acid). It is exclusively
present in tomato seeds. (Grolier, 2000). Vitamin E in its a-tocopheryl
succinate, contributes to the fight against the proliferation of cancer cells
by inducing the specific phenomena of apoptosis in these (J Neuzil et al,
2000).
Polyunsaturated acids
constituting the phospholipids of cell membranes are exposed to oxidation and
peroxidation to producing, toxic derivatives. Protecting polyunsaturated acids
is effective for a suitable quantitative relationship of the order of 1 mg of
vitamin E per gram of polyunsaturated acid ingested (Pascaud M., 1998)
sources:
