Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Tomato Fruit Quality from Organic and Conventional Production
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/58239
growing method, which in the case of iron is in keeping with earlier findings [62]. On the
contrary, significantly greater concentrations of these minerals in organic tomatoes were found
in the report by Kelly & Bateman [58].
Copper concentration (0.11-0.13 mg 100g
-1
) in conventional tomatoes was higher than in
organic tomato (0.5-0.7 mg 100g
-1
). The ranges of measured copper concentrations (0.05-0.11
mg 100g
-1
) [59] were higher than those reported by [29; 61]. There were no significant differ‐
ences in zinc concentrations between organic (0.16-0-18 mg 100g
-1
) and conventional tomatoes
(0.18-0.19 mg100g
-1
). Zinc concentrations (0.14-0.33 mg 100 g
-1
) were higher [59] than those
reported by Hernández-Suárez et al. and Gundersen et al. [29; 61].
Moisture
%
TotalΝ
P
Κ
Ca
Mg
B
Mn
Zn
Fe
Cu
(mg 100g
-1
fresh weight)
Conventional production
Elpida
93.19
191.80
33.74
126.79
7.84
18.75
0.02
0.08
0.19
0.69
0.11
Robin
94.28
214.32
29.18
137.59
8.58
19.16
0.03
0.09
0.18
0.73
0.10
Amati
93.62
223.41
27.10
142.54
8.29
18.81
0.03
0.08
0.19
0.82
0.13
Organic production
Elpida
93.27
218.77
43.43
164.31
8.08
22.22
0.03
0.08
0.17
0.64
0.07
Robin
92.86
248.73
46.75
159.17
8.92
22.13
0.03
0.08
0.16
0.59
0.05
Amati
93.57
193.02
45.34
153.05
9.00
17.36
0.03
0.07
0.18
0.51
0.05
Table 3.
Mineral contents of conventionally and organically grown tomatoes
We found the growing method to have no influence on zinc content, in agreement with
previous observations [62]. On the contrary, significantly greater concentrations of Zn in
organic tomatoes were found [58].There were insignificant differences of manganese content
between conventional (0.08-0.09 mg 100g
-1
) and organic tomato (0.07-0.08 mg 100g
-1
). Manga‐
nese concentrations (0.05-0.13 mg 100g
-1
) found by [59], were similar to those reported by [61]
and lower than those measured by [29] and were significantly influenced by both cultivar and
growing method. Mn levels seem unaffected by the growing method [62]. We found the
growing method to have no influence on zinc content (Table 3) like [62]. On the contrary,
significantly greater concentrations of Zn in conventional tomatoes were found [58]. On the
other hand, in the present study, one possible hypothesis that may explain the insignificant
differences in the majority of the minerals could be that the tomato plants of the two cultivation
methods managed to have similar soil conditions and irrigation. Previous studies support such
a claim. Significant differences in the concentration of Na, Ca, Mg and Zn in tomatoes grown
in two different production regions of the island of Tenerife (Spain) have been reported [29].
Some mineral contents in the tomato fruit must be influenced by the region of production,
