You can scarcely find a tasty, heirloom tomato in the grocery store. But University of Florida scientists helped discover a way to enhance tomato smell and taste. Breeding efforts over the last half century have emphasized traits that are important to producers — yield, disease resistance, appearance and post-harvest shelf life among them. While those […]
Tomatoes offer affordable source of Parkinson’s disease drug
Scientists have produced a tomato enriched in the Parkinson’s disease drug L-DOPA in what could become a new, affordable source of one of the world’s essential medicines. The development of the genetically modified (GM) tomato has implications for developing nations where access to pharmaceutical drugs is restricted. This novel use of tomato plants as a […]
Tomato nutrient may intercept cancer growth
A nutrient in cooked tomatoes has been shown in laboratory studies to slow the growth of or even kill prostate cancer cells. Dr Mridula Chopra and colleagues at the University of Portsmouth tested the effect of the nutrient lycopene on the simple mechanism through which cancer cells hijack a body’s healthy blood supply in order […]
Cooking Tomatoes Boosts Disease-Fighting Power
Cooking tomatoes — such as in spaghetti sauce — makes the fruit heart-healthier and boosts its cancer-fighting ability. All this, despite a loss of vitamin C during the cooking process, say Cornell food scientists. The reason: cooking substantially raises the levels of beneficial compounds called phytochemicals. Writing in the latest issue of the Journal of Agriculture […]
Tomatoes May Combat The Damaging Effects Of Radiation
A team of researchers from have discovered that lycopene—the red pigment in tomatoes—is extremely successful at guarding against the harmful effects of radiation. Dr Ruth Edge from The University of Manchester, together with her colleagues Professor George Truscott from Keele University and Professors Fritz Boehm & Christian Witt from Berlin, undertook a study of lycopene (one of […]