PROTEIN FRACTIONS AND AMINO ACID PATTERNS OF SOME TOMATO VARIETIES

The nutrient components of fresh vegetables with respect to quality criteria depend on different factors such as variety, climate, manuring, ripeness etc.
However, other criteria e.g. yield, behaviour during storage, marketability and so on are dominant.
In some cases vegetables are the main source of vitamins or, to a considerable extent, provide the human diet in vitamins, e.g. vitamin C and B₆, carotene etc. as well as they are important in supply of minerals.
Compared with some other bulky vegetables, cabbage and potatoes (table 1), tomatoes reveal considerable contents of protein and carbohydrates, very high contents of minerals and low amounts of fibres.

In the USA tomatoes are a very important vegetable (production 8.6 megatons per year), in Germany however, the consumption of tomatoes is not higher than that of cabbage.

The significance of fruits and vegetables as sources of protein is generally small, compared with that of cereals and food of animal origin (Lee and Chichester, 1974). The nitrogen metabolism seems therefore of less interest in spite of the role that amino acids can play as precursors or components of flavor and tast.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate amino acid patterns and protein quality of tomatoes from an international assortment.

Symposium on Quality of Vegetables

A. Wünsch

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1979.93.35