Organically grown high-lycopene tomatoes: A novel adventure within functional quality

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most important agricultural crops all over the world. It has hailed functional properties being characterized by the presence of many natural health promoting antioxidant compounds including vitamins, phenolics and carotenoids, particularly lycopene. The demand for organically grown produce has widely increased because of the commercial opportunities offered by such products, the increasing consumer awareness of the relationship between foods and health as well as environmental concerns. Introgression of the high-pigment (hp) and/or old-gold crimson (og c ) colour mutations into elite genotypes has led to the release of tomato cultivars with increased lycopene and functional quality. However, most of the commercially available high-lycopene (HLY) tomato cultivars were turned out and grown mainly under conventional farming systems. Hence there is a need to focus on the behaviour of HLY tomato cultivars under organic farming system. In this study the nutritional properties of two field HLY tomato cultivars (recently bred by the lab of Horticulture, INRAT) and the ordinary ‘Rio Grande’ grown organically in an open-field was determined. Significant differences were found between cultivars in the content of lycopene, total phenols and flavonoids, as well as hydrophilic, lipophilic and total antioxidant activities. Although these data require confirmation over a longer period of time, this investigation emphasizes the satisfactory behaviour of the studied HLY cultivars.