Functional characterization of old cultivars of long storage tomatoes

Nine cultivars of winter tomatoes (known as "storage tomatoes" or "old tomatoes") were cultivated in southern Italy and analysed for their content in different antioxidant compounds and for their antioxidant activity (AA). The results obtained show a high variability in the lutein, β-carotene and lycopene contents. The β-carotene content was greater than reported in literature for traditional cultivars and in one case, was higher than that of lycopene. In particular, β-carotene amount ranged between 7.51 and 36.58 mg/kg of fresh weight (FW), while lycopene content varied between 8.98 and 106.44 mg/kg FW. To our knowledge, lutein content was determined the first time in this type of tomatoes and its amount ranged between 1.7 and 5.1 mg/kg FW. Caffeic acid was detected only in two cultivars. Rutin amounts varied between 55.6 and 109.15 mg/kg FW. All the extracts (hydrophilic and lipophilic) showed a good AA; moreover, scavenger activity of the hydrophilic fraction, when evaluated by ABTS, was very high reaching 90%.