Nutritional value of five new tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) hybrids in a Mediterranean commercial glasshouse

Tomato fruit (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the pillars of the Mediterranean diet. Every day it is possible to find at the market tomatoes with different shape, colour and weight, that give different nutritional intake to the human diet. Five tomato hybrids (F₁) – two “cherries” (‘Juanita’ and ‘Sorentyno’), two red “plums” (‘Apeticio’ and ‘Solarino’), and one yellow plum (‘Maggino’) – were compared in a commercial glasshouse in southern Italy. Plants were transplanted on August 23, 2019 and grown on rockwool slabs. Determinations on yield and quality of tomatoes were made on the third truss for each cultivar. ‘Maggino’ produced less than red plum tomatoes (345 vs. 396 g plant^‑1), and resulted the most contrasting one. Indeed, as far as carotenoids, zeaxanthin and beta cryptoxanthin were detected only in ‘Maggino’ (0.09 and 0.12 mg kg^‑1 fresh weight (FW), respectively). Moreover, lycopene was not detected in ‘Maggino’ and this is the reason why a low level of lipophilic antioxidant activity was also observed. Reversely, in the other four hybrids, lycopene was present at levels ranging from 46.0 to 63.6 mg kg^‑1 FW and a much higher level of lipophilic antioxidant activity was in turn observed. β-carotene and lutein were found in all cultivars and their content ranged from 0.27 to 3.16 mg kg^‑1 FW and from 0.29 to 0.47 mg kg^‑1 FW, respectively. Furthermore, ‘Maggino’, ‘Apeticio’, and ‘Sorentyno’ showed higher levels of α-tocopherol than ‘Juanita’ and ‘Solarino’. ‘Maggino’ also revealed lower levels of ascorbate compared to the other hybrids, although hydrophilic antioxidant activity did not seem to be affected, likely due to the total phenolic levels which were not reduced in this cultivar. ‘Maggino’ fruits also showed reduced total soluble solids and dry matter compared to the red fruits.