Nutraceutical value and safety of tomato fruits produced by mycorrhizal plants.

MANUELA GIOVANNETTI; LUCIANO AVIO; ROBERTO BARALE; NELLO CECCARELLI; RENZA CRISTOFANI; AMBRA IEZZI; FRANCESCO MIGNOLLI; PIERO PICCIARELLI; BARBARA PINTO; DANIELA REALI; CRISTIANA SBRANA; ROBERTO SCARPATO

BRITISH JOURNAL OF NUTRITION

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Año: 2012 vol. 107 p. 242 - 251

0007-1145

Tomato fruit has assumed the status of "functional food" due to the association between its consumption anda reduced likelihood of certain types of cancers and cardiovascular diseases. The nutraceutical value oftomatoes can be affected by the cultivation conditions, e.g. the phytochemical content of the fruits mayincrease with the establishment of beneficial mycorrhizal symbioses in the plants. A multidisciplinary studywas carried out to gain knowledge on the antioxidant, estrogenic/antiestrogenic and genotoxic activity oftomato fruits produced by mycorrhizal plants. Our results showed that the symbiosis positively affected thegrowth and mineral nutrient content of tomato plants and enhanced the nutritional and nutraceutical value oftomato fruits through modifications of plant secondary metabolism, which led to increased levels of lycopenein fruits obtained from mycorrhizal plants, as compared with controls. Moreover, such changes did not resultin production of mutagenic compounds, since tomato extracts induced no in vitro genotoxic effects. Fruitextracts, both the hydrophilic and the lipophilic fractions, originating from mycorrhizal plants strongly inhibitedE2-human ERα binding, showing significantly higher antiestrogenic power as compared to controls. Thepresent work shows that beneficial plant symbionts, such as mycorrhizal fungi, can lead to production of safeand high quality food, which is an important societal issue strongly demanded by both consumers andproducers.