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The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...
,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
, and
Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word , from which the English word ''tomato'' derived. Its domestication and use as a cultivated food may have originated with the indigenous peoples of
Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
. The Aztecs used tomatoes in their cooking at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and after the Spanish encountered the tomato for the first time after their contact with the Aztecs, they brought the plant to Europe, in a widespread transfer of plants known as the Columbian exchange. From there, the tomato was introduced to other parts of the European-colonized world during the 16th century. Tomatoes are a significant source of umami flavor. They are consumed in diverse ways: raw or cooked, and in many dishes, sauces, salads, and drinks. While tomatoes are
fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...
s—
botanically Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
classified as berries—they are commonly used culinarily as a vegetable ingredient or side dish. Numerous varieties of the tomato plant are widely grown in temperate climates across the world, with greenhouses allowing for the production of tomatoes throughout all seasons of the year. Tomato plants typically grow to in height. They are vines that have a weak stem that sprawls and typically needs support. Indeterminate tomato plants are perennials in their native habitat, but are cultivated as annuals. (Determinate, or bush, plants are annuals that stop growing at a certain height and produce a crop all at once.) The size of the tomato varies according to the cultivar, with a range of in width.


Names


Etymology

The word ''tomato'' comes from the Spanish , which in turn comes from the Nahuatl word , meaning 'swelling fruit'; also 'fat water' or 'fat thing'. The native Mexican tomatillo is . When Aztecs started to cultivate the fruit to be larger, sweeter and red, they called the new variety (or ) (), ('plump with navel' or 'fat water with navel'). The specific name ''lycopersicum'' (from the 1753 book ) is of Greek origin (''λύκοπερσικων; lykopersikon''), meaning 'wolf peach'.


Pronunciation

The usual pronunciations of ''tomato'' are (usual in
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
) and (usual in
British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadl ...
). The word's dual pronunciations were immortalized in Ira and
George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
's 1937 song "
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" is a song written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin for the 1937 film '' Shall We Dance'', where it was introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as part of a celebrated dance duet on roller skates. The she ...
" ("You like and I like / You like and I like ") and have become a symbol for
nitpicking Nitpicking is a term, first used in 1956, that describes the action of giving too much attention to unimportant detail. A person who nitpicks is termed as a nitpicker. The terminology originates from the common act of manually removing nits (t ...
pronunciation disputes. In this capacity, it has even become an American and British slang term: saying "" when presented with two choices can mean "What's the difference?" or "It's all the same to me".


Botany


Description

Tomato plants are vines, initially decumbent, typically growing or more above the ground if supported, although erect bush varieties have been bred, generally tall or shorter. Indeterminate types are "tender" perennials, dying annually in temperate climates (they are originally native to tropical highlands), although they can live up to three years in a greenhouse in some cases. Determinate types are annual in all climates. Tomato plants are
dicot The dicotyledons, also known as dicots (or, more rarely, dicotyls), are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided. The name refers to one of the typical characteristics of the group: namely, ...
s, and grow as a series of branching stems, with a terminal bud at the tip that does the actual growing. When the tip eventually stops growing, whether because of pruning or flowering, lateral buds take over and grow into other, fully functional, vines. Tomato vines are typically pubescent, meaning covered with fine short hairs. The hairs facilitate the vining process, turning into roots wherever the plant is in contact with the ground and moisture, especially if the vine's connection to its original root has been damaged or severed. Most tomato plants have compound leaves, and are called regular leaf (RL) plants, but some cultivars have simple leaves known as potato leaf (PL) style because of their resemblance to that particular relative. Of RL plants, there are variations, such as rugose leaves, which are deeply grooved, and
variegated Variegation is the appearance of differently coloured zones in the leaves and sometimes the stems and fruit of plants. Species with variegated individuals are sometimes found in the understory of tropical rainforests, and this habitat is the ...
, angora leaves, which have additional colors where a genetic mutation causes chlorophyll to be excluded from some portions of the leaves. The leaves are long, odd pinnate, with five to nine leaflets on petioles, each leaflet up to long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy. Their
flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanis ...
s, appearing on the apical meristem, have the anthers fused along the edges, forming a column surrounding the pistil's style. Flowers in domestic cultivars can be self-fertilizing. The flowers are across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the
corolla Corolla may refer to: *Corolla (botany), the petals of a flower, considered as a unit *Toyota Corolla, an automobile model name *Corolla (headgear) A ''corolla'' is an ancient headdress in the form of a small circlet or crown.cyme of three to 12 together. Although in culinary terms, tomato is regarded as a vegetable, its fruit is classified
botanically Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
as a berry. As a true fruit, it develops from the ovary of the plant after fertilization, its flesh comprising the pericarp walls. The fruit contains hollow spaces full of seeds and moisture, called locular cavities. These vary, among cultivated species, according to type. Some smaller varieties have two cavities, globe-shaped varieties typically have three to five,
beefsteak tomato A beef tomato (British English) or beefsteak tomato (American English) is one of the largest varieties of cultivated tomatoes, some weighing or more. Most are pink or red with numerous small seed compartments (locules) distributed throughout the ...
es have a great number of smaller cavities, while paste tomatoes have very few, very small cavities. For propagation, the seeds need to come from a mature fruit, and be dried or fermented before germination.


Classification

In 1753, Linnaeus placed the tomato in the
genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
'' Solanum'' (alongside the
potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...
) as ''Solanum lycopersicum''. In 1768, Philip Miller moved it to its own genus, naming it ''Lycopersicon esculentum''. The name came into wide use, but was technically in breach of the plant naming rules because Linnaeus's species name ''lycopersicum'' still had priority. Although the name ''Lycopersicum lycopersicum'' was suggested by Karsten (1888), it is not used because it violates the International Code of Nomenclature barring the use of tautonyms in botanical nomenclature. The corrected name ''Lycopersicon lycopersicum'' (Nicolson 1974) was technically valid, because Miller's genus name and Linnaeus's species name differ in exact spelling, but since ''Lycopersicon esculentum'' has become so well known, it was officially listed as a ''nomen conservandum'' in 1983, and would be the correct name for the tomato in classifications which do not place the tomato in the genus ''Solanum''. Genetic evidence has now shown that Linnaeus was correct to put the tomato in the genus ''Solanum'', making ''Solanum lycopersicum'' the correct name. Both names, however, will probably be found in the literature for some time. Two of the major reasons for considering the genera separate are the leaf structure (tomato leaves are markedly different from any other ''Solanum''), and the biochemistry (many of the alkaloids common to other ''Solanum'' species are conspicuously absent in the tomato). On the other hand, hybrids of tomato and diploid
potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...
can be created in the lab by somatic fusion, and are partially fertile, providing evidence of the close relationship between these species.


Genetics and genetic modification


Genome

An international consortium of researchers from 10 countries, began sequencing the tomato
genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ...
in 2004. A prerelease version of the genome was made available in December 2009. The complete genome for the cultivar Heinz 1706 was published on 31 May 2012 in ''
Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...
''. The latest reference genome published in 2021 had 799 MB and encodes 34,384 (predicted) proteins, spread over 12 chromosomes.


Genetic modification

Since many other fruits, like
strawberries The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...
,
apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...
s,
melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit. Botanically, a melon is a kind of berry, specifically a "pepo". T ...
s, and bananas share the same characteristics and genes, researchers stated the published genome could help to improve food quality, food security and reduce costs of all of these fruits. The first commercially available genetically modified food was a tomato called Flavr Savr, which was engineered to have a longer shelf life. However, it is no longer commercially available. Scientists are continuing to develop tomatoes with new traits not found in natural crops, such as increased resistance to pests or environmental stresses or better flavor.


Breeding

The Tomato Genetic Resource Center, Germplasm Resources Information Network, AVRDC, and numerous seed banks around the world store seed representing genetic variations of value to modern agriculture. These seed stocks are available for legitimate breeding and research efforts. While individual breeding efforts can produce useful results, the bulk of tomato breeding work is at universities and major agriculture-related corporations. These efforts have resulted in significant regionally adapted breeding lines and hybrids, such as the Mountain series from North Carolina. Corporations including Heinz, Monsanto, BHNSeed, and Bejoseed have breeding programs that attempt to improve production, size, shape, color, flavor, disease tolerance, pest tolerance, nutritional value, and numerous other traits.


Fruit versus vegetable

Botanically Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
, a tomato is a
fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...
—a berry, consisting of the ovary, together with its seeds, of a
flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants t ...
. However, the tomato is considered a " culinary vegetable" because it has a much lower sugar content than culinary fruits; because it is more savoury (umami) than sweet, it is typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, rather than as a dessert. Tomatoes are not the only food source with this ambiguity; bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans, aubergines/eggplants, avocados, and
squashes Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...
of all kinds (such as courgettes/zucchini and pumpkins) are all botanically fruit, yet cooked as vegetables. The confusion on whether tomatoes are fruits or vegetables has led to legal dispute in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables, but not on fruit, caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. In '' Nix v. Hedden'', the U.S. Supreme Court settled the tariff controversy on May 10, 1893, by declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use—they are generally served with dinner and not dessert. The holding of this case applies only to the interpretation of the
Tariff of 1883 In United States tax law history, the Tariff of 1883 (signed into law on March 3, 1883 Access date: 03/06/09), also known as the Mongrel Tariff Act by its critics, reduced high tariff rates only marginally, and left in place fairly strong protec ...
, and the court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purposes.


History

The wild ancestor of the tomato, '' Solanum pimpinellifolium'', is native to western South America. These wild versions were the size of peas. The first evidence of domestication points to the Aztecs and other peoples in Mesoamerica, who used the fruit fresh and in their cooking. The Spanish first introduced tomatoes to Europe, where they became used in Spanish food. In France, Italy and northern Europe, the tomato was initially grown as an ornamental plant. It was regarded with suspicion as a food because botanists recognized it as a nightshade, a relative of the poisonous belladonna. This was exacerbated by the interaction of the tomato's acidic juice with pewter plates. The leaves and fruit contain
tomatine Tomatine (sometimes called tomatin or lycopersicin) is a glycoalkaloid, found in the stems and leaves of tomato plants, and in the fruits at much lower concentrations. Chemically pure tomatine is a white crystalline solid at standard temperature ...
, which in large quantities would be toxic. However, the ripe fruit contains a much lower amount of tomatine than the immature fruit.


Mesoamerica

The exact date of domestication is unknown; by 500 BC, it was already being cultivated in southern
Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
and probably other areas. The Pueblo people are thought to have believed that those who witnessed the ingestion of tomato seeds were blessed with powers of divination. The large, lumpy variety of tomato, a mutation from a smoother, smaller fruit, originated in Mesoamerica, and may be the direct ancestor of some modern cultivated tomatoes. The Aztecs raised several varieties of tomato, with red tomatoes called ''xictomatl'' and green tomatoes called ''tomatl'' ( Tomatillo). Bernardino de Sahagún reported seeing a great variety of tomatoes in the Aztec market at Tenochtitlán (Mexico City): ". . . large tomatoes, small tomatoes, leaf tomatoes, sweet tomatoes, large serpent tomatoes, nipple-shaped tomatoes," and tomatoes of all colors from the brightest red to the deepest yellow. Bernardino de Sahagún mentioned Aztecs cooking various sauces, some with and without tomatoes of different sizes, serving them in city markets: "foods sauces, hot sauces; fried
ood The Ood are an alien species with telepathic abilities from the long-running science fiction series ''Doctor Who''. In the series' narrative, they live in the distant future (circa 42nd century). The Ood are portrayed as a slave race, natural ...
olla-cooked
ood The Ood are an alien species with telepathic abilities from the long-running science fiction series ''Doctor Who''. In the series' narrative, they live in the distant future (circa 42nd century). The Ood are portrayed as a slave race, natural ...
juices, sauces of juices, shredded
ood The Ood are an alien species with telepathic abilities from the long-running science fiction series ''Doctor Who''. In the series' narrative, they live in the distant future (circa 42nd century). The Ood are portrayed as a slave race, natural ...
with
chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
, with squash seeds ost_likely_Cucurbita_pepo.html" ;"title="Cucurbita_pepo.html" ;"title="ost likely Cucurbita pepo">ost likely Cucurbita pepo">Cucurbita_pepo.html" ;"title="ost likely Cucurbita pepo">ost likely Cucurbita pepo with tomatoes, with smoked chile, with hot chile, with yellow chile, with mild red chile sauce, yellow chile sauce, hot chile sauce, with "bird excrement" sauce, sauce of smoked chile, heated [sauces], bean sauce; [he sells] toasted beans, cooked beans, mushroom sauce, sauce of small squash, sauce of large tomatoes, sauce of ordinary tomatoes, sauce of various kinds of sour herbs, avocado sauce."


Spanish distribution

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés may have been the first to transfer a small yellow tomato to Europe after he captured the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, in 1521. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in a herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist, who suggested that a new type of eggplant had been brought to Italy that was blood red or golden color when mature and could be divided into segments and eaten like an eggplant—that is, cooked and seasoned with salt, black pepper, and oil. It was not until ten years later that tomatoes were named in print by Mattioli as ''pomi d'oro'', or "golden apples". After the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Spanish distributed the tomato throughout their colonies in the
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...
. They also took it to the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
, from where it spread to
southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...
and then the entire Asian continent. The Spanish also brought the tomato to Europe. It grew easily in Mediterranean climates, and cultivation began in the 1540s. It was probably eaten shortly after it was introduced, and was certainly being used as food by the early 17th century in Spain.


China

The tomato was introduced to China, likely via the Philippines or Macau, in the 1500s. It was given the name ''fānqié'' (barbarian eggplant), as the Chinese named many foodstuffs introduced from abroad, but referring specifically to early introductions.


Italy

The recorded history of tomatoes in Italy dates back to at least 31 October 1548, when the house steward of Cosimo de' Medici, the grand duke of
Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...
, wrote to the Medici private secretary informing him that the basket of tomatoes sent from the grand duke's Florentine estate at
Torre del Gallo ''Torre'' (plurals ''torri'' and ''torres'') means ''tower'' in seven Romance languages ( Portuguese, Spanish, Galician, Catalan, Italian, Occitan and Corsican) and may refer to: Biology * Muir-Torre syndrome, the inherited cancer syndrome ...
"had arrived safely". Tomatoes were grown mainly as ornamentals early on after their arrival in Italy. For example, the Florentine aristocrat Giovanvettorio Soderini wrote how they "were to be sought only for their beauty", and were grown only in gardens or flower beds. The tomato's ability to mutate and create new and different varieties helped contribute to its success and spread throughout Italy. However, even in areas where the climate supported growing tomatoes, their habit of growing to the ground suggested low status. They were not adopted as a staple of the peasant population because they were not as filling as other fruits already available. Additionally, both toxic and inedible varieties discouraged many people from attempting to consume or prepare any other varieties. In certain areas of Italy, such as Florence, the fruit was used solely as a tabletop decoration, until it was incorporated into the local cuisine in the late 17th or early 18th century. The earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...
in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources. Unique varieties were developed over the next several hundred years for uses such as dried tomatoes, sauce tomatoes, pizza tomatoes, and tomatoes for long-term storage. These varieties are usually known for their place of origin as much as by a variety name. For example, '' Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio'' is the "hanging tomato of Vesuvius", or the well known and highly-prized San Marzano
plum tomato A plum tomato, also known as a processing tomato or paste tomato, is a type of tomato bred for sauce and packing purposes. It is generally oval or cylindrical in shape, with significantly fewer locules (seed compartments, usually only two) than ...
grown in that region.


Britain

Tomatoes were not grown in England until the 1590s. One of the earliest cultivators was John Gerard, a
barber-surgeon The barber surgeon, one of the most common European medical practitioners of the Middle Ages, was generally charged with caring for soldiers during and after battle. In this era, surgery was seldom conducted by physicians, but instead by barbers ...
. Gerard's ''Herbal'', published in 1597, and largely plagiarized from continental sources, is also one of the earliest discussions of the tomato in England. Gerard knew the tomato was eaten in Spain and Italy. Nonetheless, he believed it was poisonous (in fact, the plant and raw fruit do have low levels of
tomatine Tomatine (sometimes called tomatin or lycopersicin) is a glycoalkaloid, found in the stems and leaves of tomato plants, and in the fruits at much lower concentrations. Chemically pure tomatine is a white crystalline solid at standard temperature ...
, but are not generally dangerous; see below). Gerard's views were influential, and the tomato was considered unfit for eating (though not necessarily poisonous) for many years in Britain and its North American colonies. However, by the mid-18th century, tomatoes were widely eaten in Britain, and before the end of that century, the '' Encyclopædia Britannica'' stated the tomato was "in daily use" in soups, broths, and as a garnish. They were not part of the average person's diet, and though by 1820 they were described as "to be seen in great abundance in all our vegetable markets" and to be "used by all our best cooks", reference was made to their cultivation in gardens still "for the singularity of their appearance", while their use in cooking was associated with exotic Italian or Jewish cuisine.


India

The tomato arrived in India by the way of Portuguese explorers, in the 16th century. It was grown from the 18th century onwards for the British. Even today, in Bengal, the alternative name is "Biliti Begun" ( bn, বিলিতি বেগুন), meaning "Foreign Eggplant" It was then adopted widely as it is well suited to India's climate, with Uttarakhand as one of the main producers.


Middle East and North Africa

The tomato was introduced to cultivation in the Middle East by John Barker, British consul in Aleppo ''circa'' 1799 to 1825. Nineteenth century descriptions of its consumption are uniformly as an ingredient in a cooked dish. In 1881, it is described as only eaten in the region "within the last forty years". Today, the tomato is a critical and ubiquitous part of Middle Eastern cuisine, served fresh in salads (e.g.,
Arab salad Arab salad or Arabic salad is any of a variety of salad dishes that form part of Arab cuisine. Combining many different fruits and spices, and often served as part of a mezze, Arab salads include those from Algeria and Tunisia such as the "Algeri ...
, Israeli salad,
Shirazi salad Shirazi salad ( fa, سالاد شیرازی ''sālād shirāzi'') is an Iranian salad that originated from and is named after Shiraz in southern Iran. It is a relatively modern dish, dating to sometime after the introduction of the tomato to Iran ...
and Turkish salad), grilled with kebabs and other dishes, made into sauces, and so on.


United States

The earliest reference to tomatoes being grown in British North America is from 1710, when herbalist
William Salmon William Salmon (1644–1713) was an English empiric doctor and a writer of medical texts. He advertised himself as a "Professor of Physick". Salmon held an equivocal place in the medical community. He led apothecaries in opposing attempts by ...
reported seeing them in what is today South Carolina. They may have been introduced from the Caribbean. By the mid-18th century, they were cultivated on some Carolina plantations, and probably in other parts of the Southeast as well. Possibly, some people continued to think tomatoes were poisonous at this time; and in general, they were grown more as ornamental plants than as food.
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
, who ate tomatoes in Paris, sent some seeds back to America. Some early American advocates of the culinary use of the tomato included Michele Felice Cornè and
Robert Gibbon Johnson Robert Gibbon Johnson (July 23, 1771 – October 2, 1850), also known as Colonel Johnson, was an American gentleman farmer, historian, horticulturalist, judge, soldier and statesman who lived in Salem, New Jersey. He is especially renowned for t ...
. Early tomato breeders included Henry Tilden in Iowa and a Dr. Hand in Baltimore.
Alexander W. Livingston Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants li ...
receives much credit for developing numerous varieties of tomato for both home and commercial gardeners. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1937 yearbook declared that "half of the major varieties were a result of the abilities of the Livingstons to evaluate and perpetuate superior material in the tomato." Livingston's first breed of tomato, the Paragon, was introduced in 1870, the beginning of a great tomato culture enterprise in the county. In 1875, he introduced the Acme, which was said to be involved in the parentage of most of the tomatoes introduced by him and his competitors for the next twenty-five years.About Reynoldsburg
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When Livingston began his attempts to develop the tomato as a commercial crop, his aim had been to grow tomatoes smooth in contour, uniform in size, and sweet in flavor. He eventually developed over seventeen different varieties of the tomato plant. Today, the crop is grown in every state in the Union. Because of the long growing season needed for this heat-loving crop, several states in the US
Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — d ...
became major tomato-producers, particularly
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...
and
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. In California, tomatoes are grown under irrigation for both the fresh fruit market and for canning and processing. The
University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...
(UC Davis) became a major center for research on the tomato. The C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center at UC Davis is a gene bank of wild relatives, monogenic mutants and miscellaneous genetic stocks of tomato. The center is named for the late Dr. Charles M. Rick, a pioneer in tomato genetics research. Research on processing tomatoes is also conducted by the California Tomato Research Institute in Escalon, California. In California, growers have used a method of cultivation called
dry-farming Dryland farming and dry farming encompass specific agricultural techniques for the non-irrigated cultivation of crops. Dryland farming is associated with drylands, areas characterized by a cool wet season (which charges the soil with virtual ...
, especially with
Early Girl The Early Girl tomato is a medium-sized globe-type F1 hybrid popular with home gardeners because of its early ripening fruit. Early Girl is a cultivar of tomato with indeterminate growth, which means it produces flowers and fruit until it is kil ...
tomatoes. This technique encourages the plant to send roots deep to find existing moisture in soil that retains moisture, such as clayey soil.


Modern commercial varieties

The poor taste and lack of sugar in modern garden and commercial tomato varieties resulted from breeding tomatoes to ripen uniformly red. This change occurred after discovery of a mutant "u"
phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology (biology), morphology or physical form and structure, its Developmental biology, developmental proc ...
in the mid 20th century that ripened . This was widely cross-bred to produce red fruit without the typical green ring around the stem on uncross-bred varieties. Prior to general introduction of this trait, most tomatoes produced more sugar during ripening, and were sweeter and more flavorful. Evidence has been found that 10–20% of the total carbon fixed in the fruit can be produced by photosynthesis in the developing fruit of the normal U phenotype. The u genetic mutation encodes a factor that produces defective chloroplasts with lower density in developing fruit, resulting in a lighter green colour of unripe fruit, and repression of sugars accumulation in the resulting ripe fruit by 10–15%. Perhaps more important than their role in photosynthesis, the fruit chloroplasts are remodelled during ripening into chlorophyll-free chromoplasts that synthesize and accumulate the carotenoids lycopene, β-carotene, and other metabolites that are sensory and nutritional assets of the ripe fruit. The potent chloroplasts in the dark-green shoulders of the U phenotype are beneficial here, but have the disadvantage of leaving green shoulders near the stems of the ripe fruit, and even cracked yellow shoulders, apparently because of oxidative stress due to overload of the photosynthetic chain in direct sunlight at high temperatures. Hence genetic design of a commercial variety that combines the advantages of types u and U requires fine tuning, but may be feasible. Furthermore, breeders of modern tomato cultivars typically strive to produce tomato plants exhibiting improved yield, shelf life, size, and tolerance/resistance to various environmental pressures, including disease. However, these breeding efforts have yielded unintended negative consequences on various tomato fruit attributes. For instance, linkage drag is a phenomenon that has been responsible for alterations in the metabolism of the tomato fruit. Linkage drag describes the introduction of an undesired trait or allele into a plant during backcrossing. This trait/allele is physically linked (or is very close) to the desired allele along the chromosome. In introducing the beneficial allele, there exists a high likelihood that the poor allele is also incorporated into the plant. Thus, breeding efforts attempting to enhance certain traits (for example: larger fruit size) have unintentionally altered production of chemicals associated with, for instance, nutritional value and flavor. Breeders have turned to using wild tomato species as a source of alleles for the introduction of beneficial traits into modern tomato varieties. For example, wild tomato relatives may possess higher amounts of fruit solids (which are associated with greater sugar content) or resistance to diseases caused by microbes, such as resistance towards the early blight pathogen ''Alternaria solani''. However, this tactic has limitations, for the incorporation of certain traits, such as pathogen resistance, can negatively impact other favorable phenotypes, such as fruit production.


Cultivation

The tomato is grown worldwide for its edible
fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...
s, with thousands of cultivars. A fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 5–10–10 is often sold as tomato fertilizer or vegetable fertilizer, although manure and compost are also used. On average there are 150,000 seeds in a pound of tomato seeds.


Diseases

Tomato cultivars vary widely in their resistance to disease. Modern hybrids focus on improving disease resistance over the heirloom plants. Various forms of mildew and
blight Blight refers to a specific symptom affecting plants in response to infection by a pathogenic organism. Description Blight is a rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as leaves, branches, twigs, or floral orga ...
are common tomato afflictions, which is why tomato cultivars are often marked with a combination of letters that refer to specific disease resistance. The most common letters are: LB – ''
late blight ''Phytophthora infestans'' is an oomycete or water mold, a fungus-like microorganism that causes the serious potato and tomato disease known as late blight or potato blight. Early blight, caused by ''Alternaria solani'', is also often called ...
'', V – ''verticillium'' wilt, F – ''fusarium'' wilt strain I, FF – ''fusarium'' wilt strain I and II, N – '' nematodes'', T – '' tobacco mosaic virus'', and A – '' alternaria''. A common tomato disease is tobacco mosaic virus. Handling cigarettes and other infected tobacco products can transmit the virus to tomato plants. Another particularly dreaded disease is
curly top Curly Top is a 1935 American musical romantic comedy film starring Shirley Temple, John Boles and Rochelle Hudson. Plot A bachelor wants to adopt an orphan, but she refuses to leave behind her older sister, so he adopts them both. The man eventu ...
, carried by the
beet leafhopper The beet leafhopper (''Circulifer tenellus''), also sometimes known as ''Neoaliturus tenellus'', is a species of leafhopper which belongs to the family Cicadellidae in the order Hemiptera. Morphology A lot of morphological diversity has been ...
, which interrupts the lifecycle. As the name implies, it has the symptom of making the top leaves of the plant wrinkle up and grow abnormally. Bacterial wilt is another common disease impacting yield. Wang ''et al.'', 2019 find phage combination therapies reduce that impact, sometimes by reducing bacterial abundance and sometimes by selecting for resistant but slow growing genetics.


Pests

Some common tomato pests are the tomato bug,
stink bugs Stink bug or stinkbug is a common name for several insects and may refer to: * Any of several bugs in the true bug (hemipteran) family Pentatomidae **''Halyomorpha halys'', or brown marmorated stink bug **''Chinavia hilaris'', or green stink bug * ...
, cutworms,
tomato hornworm ''Manduca quinquemaculata'', the five-spotted hawkmoth, is a brown and gray hawk moth of the family Sphingidae. The caterpillar, often referred to as the tomato hornworm, can be a major pest in gardens; they get their name from a dark projection ...
s and
tobacco hornworm ''Manduca sexta'' is a moth of the family Sphingidae present through much of the Americas. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1763 '' Centuria Insectorum''. Commonly known as the Carolina sphinx moth and the tobacco hawk ...
s, aphids, cabbage loopers, whiteflies,
tomato fruitworm ''Helicoverpa zea, ''commonly known as the corn earworm, is a species (formerly in the genus ''Heliothis'') in the family Noctuidae. The larva of the moth ''Helicoverpa zea'' is a major agricultural pest. Since it is polyphagous (feeds on many d ...
s, flea beetles, red spider mite, slugs, and Colorado potato beetles. The tomato russet mite, '' Aculops lycopersici'', feeds on foliage and young fruit of tomato plants, causing shrivelling and necrosis of leaves, flowers, and fruit, possibly killing the plant. After an insect attack tomato plants produce
systemin Systemin is a plant peptide hormone involved in the wound response in the family Solanaceae. It was the first plant hormone that was proven to be a peptide having been isolated from tomato leaves in 1991 by a group led by Clarence A. Ryan. ...
, a plant peptide hormone. Systemin activates defensive mechanisms, such as the production of protease inhibitors to slow the growth of insects. The hormone was first identified in tomatoes, but similar proteins have been identified in other species since.


Other disorders

Although not a disease as such, irregular supplies of water can cause growing or ripening fruit to split. Besides cosmetic damage, the splits may allow decay to start, although growing fruits have some ability to heal after a split. In addition, a deformity called cat-facing can be caused by pests, temperature stress, or poor soil conditions. Affected fruit usually remains edible, but its appearance may be unsightly.


Companion plants

Tomatoes serve, or are served by, a large variety of companion plants. Among the most famous pairings is the tomato plant and carrots; studies supporting this relationship have produced a popular book about companion planting, ''Carrots Love Tomatoes''. The devastating tomato hornworm has a major predator in various parasitic wasps, whose larvae devour the hornworm, but whose adult form drinks nectar from tiny-flowered plants like umbellifers. Several species of umbellifer are therefore often grown with tomato plants, including parsley, Queen Anne's lace, and occasionally dill. These also attract predatory flies that attack various tomato pests. Borage is thought to repel the
tomato hornworm ''Manduca quinquemaculata'', the five-spotted hawkmoth, is a brown and gray hawk moth of the family Sphingidae. The caterpillar, often referred to as the tomato hornworm, can be a major pest in gardens; they get their name from a dark projection ...
moth. Plants with strong scents, like alliums ( onions, chives, garlic), mints ( basil, oregano, spearmint) and French marigold, ('' Tagetes patula'') are thought to mask the scent of the tomato plant, making it harder for pests to locate it, or to provide an alternative landing point, reducing the odds of the pests from attacking the correct plant. These plants may also subtly affect the flavor of tomato fruit.Companion Planting
. Homeandgardensite.com (15 January 2009). Retrieved on 5 September 2013.
Basil is popularly recommended as a companion plant to the tomato. Common claims are that basil may deter pests or improve tomato flavor. However, in double-blind taste tests, basil did not significantly affect the taste of tomatoes when planted adjacent to them. Tomato plants can protect asparagus from asparagus beetles, because they contain solanine that kills this pest, while asparagus plants contain Asparagusic acid that repels nematodes known to attack tomato plants. Marigolds also repel nematodes.


Pollination

In the wild, original state, tomatoes required cross-
pollination Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an Stamen, anther of a plant to the stigma (botany), stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by Anemophily, wind. Pollinating agents can ...
; they were much more
self-incompatible Self-incompatibility (SI) is a general name for several genetic mechanisms that prevent self-fertilization in sexually reproducing organisms, and thus encourage outcrossing and allogamy. It is contrasted with separation of sexes among individuals ...
than domestic cultivars. As a floral device to reduce selfing, the pistil of wild tomatoes extends farther out of the flower than today's cultivars. The stamens were, and remain, entirely within the closed
corolla Corolla may refer to: *Corolla (botany), the petals of a flower, considered as a unit *Toyota Corolla, an automobile model name *Corolla (headgear) A ''corolla'' is an ancient headdress in the form of a small circlet or crown.pollinators (probably a species of halictid bee) did not move with them. The trait of self-fertility became an advantage, and domestic cultivars of tomato have been selected to maximize this trait. This is not the same as
self-pollination Self-pollination is a form of pollination in which pollen from the same plant arrives at the stigma of a flower (in flowering plants) or at the ovule (in gymnosperms). There are two types of self-pollination: in autogamy, pollen is transferr ...
, despite the common claim that tomatoes do so. That tomatoes pollinate themselves poorly without outside aid is clearly shown in greenhouse situations, where pollination must be aided by artificial wind, vibration of the plants (one brand of vibrator is a wand called an "electric bee" that is used manually), or more often today, by cultured bumblebees. The anther of a tomato flower is shaped like a hollow tube, with the pollen produced within the structure, rather than on the surface, as in most species. The pollen moves through pores in the anther, but very little pollen is shed without some kind of externally-induced motion. The ideal vibratory frequencies to release pollen grains are provided by an insect, such as a bumblebee, or the original wild halictid pollinator, capable of engaging in a behavior known as buzz pollination, which honey bees cannot perform. In an outdoors setting, wind or animals usually provide sufficient motion to produce commercially viable crops.


Fruit formation

Pollination and fruit formation depend on
meiosis Meiosis (; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately ...
. Meiosis is central to the processes by which diploid microspore mother cells within the anther give rise to haploid pollen grains, and megaspore mother cells in ovules that are contained within the ovary give rise to haploid nuclei. Union of haploid nuclei from pollen and ovule (fertilization) can occur either by self- or cross-pollination. Fertilization leads to the formation of a diploid zygote that can then develop into an embryo within the emerging seed. Repeated fertilizations within the ovary are accompanied by maturation of the ovary to form the tomato fruit. Homologs of the '' recA'' gene, including '' rad51'', play a key role in homologous recombinational repair of DNA during meiosis. A ''rad51'' homolog is present in the anther of tomato (''Lycopersicon esculentum''), suggesting that recombinational repair occurs during meiosis in tomato.


Hydroponic and greenhouse cultivation

Tomatoes are often grown in greenhouses in cooler climates, and cultivars such as the British 'Moneymaker' and a number of cultivars grown in Siberia are specifically bred for indoor growing. In more
temperate climates In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...
, it is not uncommon to start seeds in greenhouses during the late winter for future transplant. Greenhouse tomato production in large-acreage commercial greenhouses and owner-operator stand-alone or multiple-bay greenhouses is on the increase, providing fruit during those times of the year when field-grown fruit is not readily available. Smaller sized fruit (cherry and grape), or cluster tomatoes (fruit-on-the-vine) are the fruit of choice for the large commercial greenhouse operators while the beefsteak varieties are the choice of owner-operator growers. Hydroponic technique is often used in hostile growing environments, as well as high-density plantings.


Picking and ripening

To facilitate transportation and storage, tomatoes are often picked unripe (green) and ripened in storage with ethylene. A machine-harvestable variety of tomato (the "square tomato") was developed in the 1950s by
University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...
's Gordie C. Hanna, which, in combination with the development of a suitable harvester, revolutionized the tomato-growing industry. This type of tomato is grown commercially near plants that process and can tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. They are harvested when ripe and are flavorful when picked. They are harvested 24 hours a day, seven days a week during a 12- to 14-week season, and immediately transported to packing plants, which operate on the same schedule. California is a center of this sort of commercial tomato production and produces about a third of the processed tomatoes produced in the world. In 1994,
Calgene The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in the ...
introduced a
genetically modified tomato A genetically modified tomato, or transgenic tomato, is a tomato that has had its genes modified, using genetic engineering. The first trial genetically modified food was a tomato engineered to have a longer shelf life (the Flavr Savr), which was o ...
called the ''
FlavrSavr Flavr Savr (also known as CGN-89564-2; pronounced "flavor saver"), a genetically modified tomato, was the first commercially grown genetically engineered food to be granted a license for human consumption. It was developed by the Californian company ...
'', which could be vine ripened without compromising shelf life. However, the product was not commercially successful, and was sold only until 1997.


Yield

The world dedicated 4.8 million hectares in 2012 for tomato cultivation and the total production was about 161.8 million tonnes. The average world farm yield for tomato was 33.6 tonnes per hectare, in 2012. Tomato farms in the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
were the most productive in 2012, with a nationwide average of 476 tonnes per hectare, followed by
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
(463 tonnes per hectare) and
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
(429 tonnes per hectare)."FAOSTAT: Production-Crops, 2012 data"
''Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations'', August 2014


Records

As of 2008, the heaviest tomato harvested, weighed 3.51 kg (7 lb 12 oz), was of the cultivar "Delicious", and was grown by Gordon Graham of
Edmond, Oklahoma Edmond is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area in the central part of the state. The population was 94,428 according to the 2020 United States Census, making it the fifth largest c ...
in 1986. The largest tomato plant grown was of the cultivar "Sungold" and reached 19.8 m (65 ft) in length, grown by Nutriculture Ltd (UK) of Mawdesley, Lancashire, UK, in 2000. A massive "tomato tree" growing inside the
Walt Disney World Resort The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...
's experimental greenhouses in
Lake Buena Vista, Florida Lake Buena Vista () is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. It is mostly known for being the mailing address for Walt Disney World—although almost all of the resort facilities, including all four theme parks, are physically located ...
may have been the largest single tomato plant in the world. The plant has been recognized as a Guinness World Record Holder, with a harvest of more than 32,000 tomatoes and a total weight of .The country's only single vine "tomato tree" growing in The Land pavilion at Epcot
Walt Disney World News
It yielded thousands of tomatoes at one time from a single vine. Yong Huang,
Epcot Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unre ...
's manager of agricultural science, discovered the unique plant in Beijing, China. Huang brought its seeds to Epcot and created the specialized greenhouse for the fruit to grow. The vine grew golf ball-sized tomatoes, which were served at Walt Disney World restaurants. The tree developed a disease and was removed in April 2010 after about 13 months of life. File:Germinating tomatos.jpg, Tomato plants 7 days after planting File:Tomatoseedlings.jpg, Tomato seedlings growing indoors File:Tomato 27 days from planting seeds.jpg, 27 days after planting File:Tomato fruit and flowers at day 52.jpg, 52-day-old plant, first fruits File:Green Tomatoes.jpg, Tomatoes being collected from the field, Maharashtra,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...


Production

In 2020, world production of tomatoes was 187 million tonnes, with China accounting for 35% of the total, followed by
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
,
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
, and the United States as major producers (table).


Consumption

Though it is botanically a berry, a subset of
fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...
, the tomato is a vegetable for culinary purposes because of its savoury flavour (see above). Although tomatoes originated in the Americas, they have become extensively used in Mediterranean cuisine. Ripe tomatoes contain significant umami flavor and they are a key ingredient in pizza, and are commonly used in pasta sauces. They are also used in gazpacho ( Spanish cuisine) and ''
pa amb tomàquet ''Pa amb tomàquet'' () ("Bread with tomato"), is a traditional food of Catalan, Aragonese and Balearic cuisine . ''Pa amb tomàquet'' is considered a staple of Catalan cuisine and identity. While considered a signature toast dish in the Catalan ...
'' ( Catalan cuisine). The tomato is now grown and eaten around the world. It is used in diverse ways, including raw in salads or in slices, stewed, incorporated into a wide variety of dishes, or processed into ketchup or tomato soup. Unripe green tomatoes can also be breaded and fried, used to make
salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: A ...
, or pickled. Tomato juice is sold as a drink, and is used in cocktails such as the
Bloody Mary Bloody Mary originally referred to: * Mary I of England (1516–1558), Queen of England and Ireland, so called because of her persecution of Protestants Bloody Mary may also refer to: Film * '' Urban Legends: Bloody Mary'', a 2005 horror fi ...
.


Storage

Tomatoes keep best unwashed at room temperature and out of direct sunlight. It is not recommended to refrigerate them as this can harm the flavour. Tomatoes stored cold tend to lose their flavour permanently. Storing stem down can prolong shelf life, as it may keep from rotting too quickly. Tomatoes that are not yet ripe can be kept in a paper bag till ripening. Tomatoes are easy to preserve whole, in pieces, as
tomato sauce Tomato sauce (also known as ''salsa roja'' in Spanish or ''salsa di pomodoro'' in Italian) can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish, rather than as a condiment. Tomato sauces are ...
or paste by home canning. They are acidic enough to process in a water bath rather than a pressure cooker as most vegetables require. The fruit is also preserved by drying, often in the sun, and sold either in bags or in jars with oil.


Safety


Plant toxicity

The leaves, stem, and green unripe fruit of the tomato plant contain small amounts of the alkaloid
tomatine Tomatine (sometimes called tomatin or lycopersicin) is a glycoalkaloid, found in the stems and leaves of tomato plants, and in the fruits at much lower concentrations. Chemically pure tomatine is a white crystalline solid at standard temperature ...
, whose effect on humans has not been studied. They also contain small amounts of solanine, a toxic alkaloid found in
potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...
leaves and other plants in the nightshade family. However, solanine concentrations in foliage and green fruit are generally too small to be dangerous unless large amounts are consumed—for example, as greens. Small amounts of tomato foliage are sometimes used for flavoring without ill effect, and the green fruit of unripe red tomato varieties is sometimes used for cooking, particularly as fried green tomatoes. There are also tomato varieties with fully ripe fruit that is still green. Compared to potatoes, the amount of solanine in unripe green or fully ripe tomatoes is low. However, even in the case of potatoes, while solanine poisoning resulting from dosages several times the normal human consumption has been demonstrated, actual cases of poisoning from excessive consumption of potatoes are rare. Tomato plants can be toxic to dogs if they eat large amounts of the fruit, or chew plant material.


''Salmonella''

Tomatoes were linked to seven '' Salmonella'' outbreaks between 1990 and 2005, and may have been the cause of a salmonellosis outbreak causing 172 illnesses in 18 US states in 2006. The
2008 United States salmonellosis outbreak The 2008 United States salmonellosis outbreak was an outbreak of salmonellosis across multiple U.S. states due to ''Salmonella enterica'' serovar Saintpaul. Over the course of the outbreak, 1442 cases were identified across 43 U.S. states, the D ...
caused the temporary removal of tomatoes from stores and restaurants across the United States and parts of Canada, although other foods, including
jalapeño The jalapeño ( , , ) is a medium-sized chili pepper pod type cultivar of the species ''Capsicum annuum''. A mature jalapeño chili is long and hangs down with a round, firm, smooth flesh of wide. It can have a range of pungency, with Scov ...
and
serrano pepper The serrano pepper ('' Capsicum annuum'') is a type of chili pepper that originated in the mountainous regions of the Mexican states of Puebla and Hidalgo. The name of the pepper is a reference to the mountains ('' sierras'') of these regio ...
s, may have been involved.


Nutrition

A raw tomato is 95% water, contains 4% carbohydrates, and has less than 1% each of fat and
protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...
(table). In a reference amount, raw tomatoes supply 18 kilo
calories The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of ...
and are a moderate source of vitamin C (17% of the Daily Value), but otherwise have no significant micronutrient content (table).


Research

There is no conclusive evidence to indicate that the lycopene in tomatoes or in supplements affects the onset of cardiovascular diseases or
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
. In the United States, supposed health benefits of consuming tomatoes, tomato products or lycopene to affect cancer cannot be mentioned on packaged food products without a qualified health claim statement. In a scientific review of potential claims for lycopene favorably affecting DNA, skin exposed to ultraviolet radiation, heart function and vision, the European Food Safety Authority concluded that the evidence for lycopene having any of these effects was inconclusive.


Host plant

The Potato Tuber moth ('' Phthorimaea operculella'') is an oligophagous insect that prefers to feed on plants of the family Solanaceae such as tomato plants. Female ''P. operculella'' use the leaves to lay their eggs and the hatched larvae will eat away at the
mesophyll A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ...
of the leaf.


In popular culture

The town of
Buñol Buñol (Valencian: ''Bunyol'') is a town and municipality in the province of Valencia, Spain. The municipality has an area of some 112 km², and is situated approximately 38 km west of the provincial and autonomous community capital city ...
, Spain, annually celebrates La Tomatina, a festival centered on an enormous tomato fight. On 30 August 2007, 40,000 Spaniards gathered to throw of tomatoes at each other in the festival. Several US states have adopted the tomato as a state fruit or vegetable (see above). Tomatoes have been designated the state vegetable of
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...
.
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
took both sides by declaring the ''South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato'' both the state fruit and the state vegetable in the same law, citing both its culinary and botanical classifications. In 2009, the state of
Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
passed a law making the tomato the state's official fruit. Tomato juice has been the official beverage of Ohio since 1965.
Alexander W. Livingston Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants li ...
, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, played a large part in popularizing the tomato in the late 19th century; his efforts are commemorated in Reynoldsburg with an annual Tomato Festival. Flavr Savr was the first commercially grown genetically engineered food licensed for human consumption. Tomatoes are a popular "nonlethal" throwing weapon in mass protests, and there was a common tradition of throwing rotten tomatoes at bad performers on a stage during the 19th century; today this is usually referenced as a metaphor. Embracing it for this protest connotation, the
Dutch Socialist party The Socialist Party ( nl, Socialistische Partij, ; abbreviated as SP, ) is a democratic socialist political party in the Netherlands. Founded in 1971 as the Communist Party of the Netherlands/Marxist–Leninist (KPN/ML, nl, link=no, Communisti ...
adopted the tomato as their logo. The US city of Reynoldsburg, Ohio calls itself "The Birthplace of the Tomato", claiming the first commercial variety of tomato was bred there in the 19th century. "
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
" is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The name "Rotten Tomatoes" derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a poor stage performance.


Gallery

File:Heirloom tomatoes.jpg, Various heirloom tomato (UK: heritage tomato) cultivars File:Photo of various homegrown tomatoes.jpg, Homegrown multicolored tomatoes File:Heirlooms.jpg, A variety of cultivars, including Brandywine (biggest red),
Black Krim The Black Krim (also known as Black Crimea and Noire de Crimée) is an heirloom tomato originating from Crimea. The plant is open-pollinated, indeterminate, bearing 8 ounce flattened globe fruits that are dark reddish-purple to black with gre ...
(lower left) and
Green Zebra Green Zebra is a tomato cultivar with characteristic dark green and yellow stripes. Newer variations blush reddish instead of yellow when ripe. It is more tart (described as 'spicy' and 'zingy') than a regular tomato, and it is an early cultivar ...
(top left) File:Red Tomatoes with PLU code.jpg, Red tomatoes with PLU code in a supermarket.


See also

* List of countries by tomato production * List of tomato dishes * Marglobe, an early attempt at breeding a disease-resistant tomato * Ring culture * Physalis that is also used in cooking *
Tomato jam Tomato jam (also referred to as tomato jelly) is a type of fruit preserve prepared with tomatoes and sugar. Overview Green tomatoes are used in some preparations. Some preparations may use honey, and some include bacon. It has been described a ...
* Nightshades **
Potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...
** Eggplant ** Tomatillo, a similar fruit from the related genus


References


Further reading

* David Gentilcore. ''Pomodoro! A History of the Tomato in Italy'' (Columbia University Press, 2010), scholarly history *


External links


Tomato Genome Sequencing Project
– Sequencing of the twelve tomato chromosomes.
Tomato core collection database
– Phenotypes and images of 7,000 tomato cultivars {{Authority control Crops originating from Mexico Crops originating from indigenous Americans Crops originating from the Americas Fruit vegetables Fruits originating in North America Fruits originating in South America Plants described in 1753 Solanum