Tomato: Nutritional value and health benefits

Abstract

Tomatoes are one of the highly produced and consumed vegetable all across the world. Tomato and tomato products are not only consumed for its flavour and taste but is highly rich in nutritional value and have enormous health benefits. Tomatoes are an excellent source of antioxidants, carotenes, lycopenes, lutein, minerals, Vitamins C and E and flavonoids. Many studies have reported the inverse relation of tomato consumption on various diseases like cancer, muscular degeneration disease and cardiovascular diseases. The current study has been conducted to compile the nutritional value of tomato and tomato products along with the breeding and bio-fortification studies that have been conducted in order to enhance the nutritional value of tomato. Along with that, the tomato processing industries create a huge amount of waste in the form of tomato peel and tomato seeds. The hidden potential of the tomato waste in the form of seed oil and proteins and supplements for animal’s feed have been discussed in this study. Various research studies are conducted to optimise the environmental conditions and factors that can help to enhance the nutritional value of the tomato. The latest among them is the CRISPR/Cas technology that can be used for bio-fortification applications. The current study aims to bridge the knowledge gaps between the nutritional value of tomatoes and tomato products, the potential of tomato processing industrial waste, the bio-fortification researches to enhance the nutritional value of tomato so far.