Super veg
Find out more about the food you eat.
To help plant breeders improve the potatoes and tomatoes we eat we need to understand the background to the qualities (e.g. flavour) we are interested in. Below are some of the qualities investigated by EU-SOL and how genes can affect them.
Tomato nutrition
Tomato is a great food for boosting your intake of micro-nutrients. It boasts antioxidants (that could help fight cancer) vitamins C and E, minerals iron and zinc and folate (folic acid in its natural form). It is the production of these compounds that Eu-Sol scientists are looking to investigate.
Vitamins
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is necessary for a number of enzymes to work properly, including three which are involved in the production of collagen – this substance is vital to the strength and structure of tissue such as skin, gums, teeth etc.. Scurvy, famously suffered by sailors due to lack of vitamin C intake is the result of this inability to produce collagen. Its symptoms include bleeding gums, purple spots on skin and eventually death.
As well as tomatoes limes are a good source of vitamin C and it was the habit of carrying limes on board ship to ward off scurvy that gained the British the tag of 'limeys'.
Photographer: Libraryman Copyright: CC
Vitamin E
Vitamin E is a necessary component of cell membranes. There is also some evidence to suggest it can reduce the risk of heart disease.
Folic Acid
Folic acid is actually one of the B vitamins and is indispensable in the production and maintenance of new cells, lack of folic acid can lead to anaemia as there is a problem creating new blood cells. Folic acid is of particular importance when pregnant especially during early development of the foetus.
Antioxidants
There are a number of different groups of compounds found in tomatoes that have antioxidant properties.
Carotenoids
Carotenoids are one group of compounds that have antioxidant properties. Carotenoids are natural pigments. As the name suggests they are responsible for the orange colour of carrots but also the yellow of potatoes, the pink of flamingo feathers and the red of tomatoes. Lycopene is the carotenoid which produces the red colour in tomatoes and has been the subject of considerable recent interest due to its extremely potent antioxidant properties. There is also significant evidence to suggest that high levels of lycopene in the diet can protect against certain cancers, in particular prostate cancer.
Flavonoids
Flavonoids are another group of natural pigments with antioxidant properties. Flavonoids are responsible for the orange colour of oranges. The main difference between carotenoids and flavonoids is that carotenoids will dissolve in fat, whereas flavonoids dissolve in water. In fact it appears that the antioxidant activity seen in the body after the consumption of flavonoids is not down to the antioxidant properties of the flavonoids themselves but rather the bodily processes they stimulate.
Vitamins C and E
Both vitamins C and E are highly effective antioxidants.
Minerals
Zinc
Zinc acts a co-factor in many enzymes, it is essential for cell division and as such for both growth and bodily repair. It is also necessary for normal reproductive development and has further roles in the immune system and in wound healing.
Iron
Iron is required for the formation of haemoglobin in red blood cells (in fact it is the iron that makes blood red when exposed to oxygen) and too little leads to anaemia. Iron is also needed for normal energy metabolism and the metabolism of foreign substances, such as drugs, which need to be removed from the body.
