Solanum lycopersicum

Solanum lycopersicum

Biggets Plant Dictionary | Solanum lycopersicum | The tomato fruit is consumed in diverse ways, including raw, as an ingredient in many dishes and sauces, and in drinks.

While it is botanically a fruit, it is considered a vegetable for culinary purposes (as well as by the United States Supreme Court, see Nix v. Hedden), which has caused some confusion. The fruit is rich in lycopene, which may have beneficial health effects.

History

The tomato is native to South America. Genetic evidence shows the progenitors of tomatoes were herbaceous green plants with small green fruit and a center of diversity in the highlands of Peru. One species, Solanum lycopersicum, was transported to Mexico, where it was grown and consumed by Mesoamerican civilizations. The exact date of domestication is not known. The first domesticated tomato may have been a little yellow fruit, similar in size to a cherry tomato, grown by the Aztecs of Central Mexico.[unreliable source? The word "tomato" comes from the Nahuatl word tomatl, literally "the swelling fruit".

Spanish explorer Cortés may have been the first to transfer the small yellow tomato to Europe after he captured the Aztec city of Tenochtítlan, now Mexico City, in 1521, although Christopher Columbus, a Genoese working for the Spanish monarchy, may have taken them back as early as 1493. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in an herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist, who named it pomo d’oro, or "golden apple".

Aztecs and other peoples in the region used the fruit in their cooking; it was cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas by 500 BC. The Pueblo people are thought to have believed that those who witnessed the ingestion of tomato seeds were blessed with powers of divination.[6] The large, lumpy tomato, a mutation from a smoother, smaller fruit, originated in Mesoamerica, and may be the direct ancestor of some modern cultivated tomatoes.

The tomato is one of the most commonly grown fresh market vegetables. Tomato farm can harvest as much as 19,000-25,000 pound (10-13 tons) per acre. Harvesting tomatoes is very labor intensive. Cultivation, handling, and marketing costs combined can run as high as $4,500 per acre. However, because of high market demands, farming of tomatoes can be quite profitable.

The The FDA found no credible evidence to support an association between lycopene intake or consumption of tomato and a reduced risk of lung, colorectal, breast, ovarian, or endometrial cancer. The FDA found very limited evidence to support association between tomato consumption and reduced risk of prostate, ovarian, gastric, and pancreatic cancers.