Purple Tomatoes May Be The Answer To A Healthy, Long Life

By Anna Boyd
18:30, October 27th 2008

Scientists have long praised tomatoes’ cancer-fighting powers because of their enriched levels of antioxidants. Recently, however, scientists from John Innes Centre in Norwich have been able to create purple tomatoes that could help people lead a healthy life and prevent cancer.

For the study, they used genes from the snapdragon flower which is high in anthocyanin, a substance thought to have anti-cancer properties. It is found in particularly high levels in berries such as blackberry, cranberry and chokeberry and has been shown to help significantly slow the growth of colon cancer cells. Moreover, it is also thought to protect against cardiovascular disease and age-related degenerative diseases.

The researchers injected anthocyanin into tomatoes, which already are known to contain high levels of beneficial antioxidant compounds such as lycopene and flavonoids. Then, they fed 20 mice bred to be cancer-prone a diet that consisted of 10 percent powder from the genetically engineered tomatoes, with other groups getting no tomatoes and red tomatoes. The mice getting the tomato powder lived on average 30 percent longer than those that did not, the researchers found.

“This is one of the first examples of metabolic engineering that offers the potential to promote health through diet by reducing the impact of chronic disease. And certainly the first example of a GMO [genetically modified organism] with a trait that really offers a potential benefit for all consumers,” Professor Cathie Martin, the plant geneticist from the centre who led the work, said.

However encouraging the findings aerie, she underlined the fact that this is a preliminary study and much more research is needed before trying the purple tomatoes on humans.