Functional quality and antioxidant composition of selected tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L) cultivars grown in Northern India

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Ten commercial and three exotic/wild cultivars (cvs) grown under Indian conditions were analyzed for variations in lycopene, β-carotene, total phenolics, quercetin, ascorbic acid and antioxidant activity (AOX). AOX was measured using three in vitro assays namely ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) assays. The lycopene content in tomato cvs ranged from 4.31 to 5.97 mg/100 g fw. The wild/exotic cvs had exceptionally high total phenolic content (141.98 mg/100 g fw), quercetin (56 μg/g fw) and total AOX (5.39 μmol TE/g fw). Solanum pimpinellifolium, with nearly six times lycopene content than commercial cvs, may serve as the most desirable gene pool in breeding programmes to develop functional tomatoes. Results suggest that TEAC may be more useful than DPPH assay for detecting total AOX in tomatoes.