Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Tomato Fruit Quality from Organic and Conventional Production
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/58239
(e.g., farmyard manure) and inorganic amendments (e.g., lime, zeolites, and iron oxides) were
found to decrease the metal accumulation [74].
The tomato as a fruit vegetable is not characterized by high accumulation of heavy metals.
Producers of organic vegetables, do not use mineral fertilizers and practically never use
fertilizers produced by industrial waste, which are the most polluted. As a result, one might
expect that organic vegetables contain lower amounts of toxic heavy metals. The effect of
manure on heavy metal availability is due to the introduction of organic matter to the soil,
which may retain Cd in the soil and prevent it from both leaching and from crop uptake [75].
The lead content of tomato fruit, in general, is very low and ranges depending on the hybrid
and the methods of production from 0.07 to 0.19 mg 100g
-1
[19]. No statistical difference in the
lead content between organic (0.11 mg 100g
-1
) and conventional (0.10 mg 100g
-1
) production
of the hybrid Elpida was seen. In the other two hybrids, the lead content was lower in organic
production. 'Robin' in organic production achieved lower lead content (0.08 mg kg
-1
) in
comparison with conventional methods (0.10 mg 100g
-1
). The lead content in 'Amati' is twice
lower in organic (0.07 mg kg
-1
) than in conventional production (0.14 mg 100g
-1
).
The zinc content in tomato fruits in our studies was just below 20 mg 100g
-1
. The lower zinc
content of the hybrids in organic farming compared to conventional production was not
statistically significant. Differences in the content of zinc exist between the individual hybrids.
Thus, the lowest zinc content (0.16 mg kg
-1
) was obtained in 'Robin' in organic production.
Pb
Zn
Cu
Ni
Cd
Co
Cr
Organic production
Elpida
0.11
0.17
0.07
0.01
0.0027
0.0070
0.01
Robin
0.08
0.16
0.05
0.01
0.0027
0.0070
0.01
Amati
0.07
0.18
0.05
0.01
0.0027
0.0070
0.01
Conventional production
Elpida
0.14
0.19
0.11
0.02
0.0027
0.0070
0.01
Robin
0.11
0.18
0.10
0.02
0.0027
0.0070
0.01
Amati
0.11
0.19
0.13
0.02
0.0027
0.0070
0.02
Table 6.
Heavy metals contents (mg 100g
-1
f.w.) of conventional and organical tomato
Copper content in organic fruit production is lower, ranging from 0.5 mg 100g
-1
hybrids Robin
and Amati to 0.7 mg 100g
-1
hybrids Elpida. The copper content in conventional tomato
production is twice as high in the hybrids Robin (0.10 mg 100g
-1
) and Amati (0.13 mg 100g
-1
)
in relation to organic production. The copper content in the hybrid Elpida is 0.11 mg 100g
-1
(Table 6). In contrast, significantly greater concentrations of Cd (33 μg kg
-1
) and Pb (37.8 μg
kg
-1
) were found in organic tomatoes, but at the same time a lower Cu content (0.46 mg kg
-1
)
