Tomato Lycopersicon esculentum The tomato that first reached Europe in 1523, brought from the ‘New World’ by the Spanish, bore little, if any, resemblance to the uniformly glossy, scarlet globes used in modern kitchens. Small, yellow, ridged and flattened, almost star-like in shape, this little native of the Andes was regarded, along with its cousin the potato, with a great deal of suspicion, as they are members of the poisonous Solanum family, which includes the Deadly nightshade; and its Latin name, Lycopersicon esculentum or ‘edible wolf's peach’ bears more than a little echo of this doubt, perhaps. Not all its European names are derogatory, however. Its French popular name was pomme d’amour, love apple, endured for centuries and was shortened from the original, more mundane, pomo dei Mori, apple of the Moors, in line with their tradition of seeing every new and exotic fruit as an aphrodisiac. The Italians still call it Pomodoro or golden apple, a name logically arrived at, considering that tomatoes were originally yellow in colour, before early genetic engineering methods altered them to the red we expect today. The name tomato is derived from the Aztec word meaning ‘plump fruit, tomatl. However, they also used it, prefixed with xi- for the forebear of the tomato with which we are familiar and the prefix mil- to describe the Mexican husk tomato, or tomatillo, small tomato, (Physalis ixocarpa), which is a very important flavouring component in Central American cooking. The Spanish ignored the prefixes, calling both tomate, causing a little confusion for a while. There has also been some confusion as to whether the tomato is actually a fruit or vegetable. In the 18th century, botanists specified that a fruit is the organ derived from the ovary and surrounding the seeds. Unfortunately, at the end of the 19th century, the U.S. Supreme Court officially turned this scientific classification on its head when it designated the fruit to be a vegetable, at the end of a case in which a New York produce importer lost his battle with the Customs authorities. He argued that, as a fruit, the tomato was not subject to import duty. However, the Court ruled against him on the grounds of linguistic custom, citing that tomatoes “....are usually served at dinner in, with or after the soup, fish or meat, which constitute the principle part of the repast, and not, like fruit, generally as dessert” . Interestingly, even the Ministery of Agriculture, Farming and Fisheries in the UK, list the tomato as a vegetable, presumably on this same rule of ‘linguistic custom’ - Botany? Schmotany, as they might say in Queen’s. Its acceptance at the table was quite slow, and after a fairly short flirtation with the court tables in Elizabethan England it was dismissed almost generally as a nasty, sour little thing that was liable to make one sick. Ironically, the tomato was seen as little more than an ornamental plant in North America too and was not cultivated as a food crop there until well after the Declaration of Independence. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, attitudes, and the tomato, seemed to have changed markedly, and Mrs Isabella Beeton simply glowed with approval in 1859 when she wrote, “In this country it is much more cultivated than it formerly was; and the more the community becomes acquainted with the many agreeable forms in which the fruit can be prepared, the more widely will its cultivation be extended. For ketchup, soups, and sauces, it is equally applicable and the unripe fruit makes one of the best pickles.” The late twentieth century finds it even more in favour as nutritionists and modern science discover more about its chemistry. Studies at Ben Gurion University in Israel have found that the carotenoid Lycopene, found in tomatoes, may be effective in helping to protect against cancer, heart disease and degenerative eye disease, and that these antioxidant elements are more readily absorbed into the bloodstream when the tomatoes are cooked with an oil high in monounsaturates, such as olive. Perhaps yet another reason that the so-called ‘Mediterranean Diet’ is associated with reduced risk of heart disease and some cancers, such as cancers of the cervix, prostate, bladder and pancreas. In its natural form, Lycopene has been found to be the most potent antioxidant discovered to date and that it helps to prevent the formation of oxidised LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol which can build up as arterial plaque, leading to heart attack and stroke. Separate studies on a group of 47,000 adult males by researchers at Harvard University in the USA over a period of six years have found that Lycopene seems to activate DNA damage control. The research group there suggest a possible 40-45% decrease in the risk of prostate cancer in men who eat at least 10 servings a week of tomato-based foods. Even better news is the fact that Lycopene seems unaffected by processing and is also present in tomato products such as tomato juice, purées, passata and pastes. Tomato is also high in the natural immune booster, vitamin C; an average 100g serving contains 22mg - more than one third of the RDA for non-smokers and lg fibre, which may help to prevent cancers of the colon and rectum. Chinese medicine recommends one tomato sweetened with sugar for bleeding gums and, for all those ‘morning after the night before’ sufferers, one to two tomatoes, first thing in the morning, taken on an empty stomach is recommended for those bloodshot eyes. There is a down side, though, the salicylates which are also found in tomatoes and other nightshades, may trigger a painful reaction in arthritis and gout sufferers. 100g raw tomatoes give 17 kcalories energy, 0.7g protein, 0.3g fat, 3.1g carbohydrate, 3.1g sugars, 1.0g fibre, 7mg calcium, 0.5mg iron, 9mg sodium, 105 µg vitamin A, 0.09mg thiamin, 17mg vitamin C.