Chemical Properties and Nutritional Quality of Nigerian Grown Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Cultivars

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum)) is quantitatively consumed in Nigeria. The objective of this study was to evaluate the chemical properties and nutritional quality of Eva F1 and Roma cultivars locally grown in Nigeria. The results revealed a degree brix varying from 4.13˚ to 5.43˚ and a pH ranging from 4.28 to 4.34 corresponding to a titrable acidity of 0.88% to 1.18% citric acid equivalents. The colour measurements showed higher L* value for Roma paste (35.59) than Eva F1 paste (35.29) cultivar which indicated that Eva F1 paste is brighter than Roma paste. The moisture, ash, fat, protein, fibre and carbohydrate content ranged from 87.41% to 88.16%, 0.64% to 0.75%, 0.39% to 0.46%, 2.18% to 2.69%, 8.54% to 8.81% and 3.78% to 4.15%, respectively, for the two tomato cultivars. The results of the elemental analyses indicated that calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc concentrations were significantly higher in Roma than Eva F1 cultivar, while phosphorus was found to be significantly higher in Eva F1 cultivar. The results clearly ddemonstrated that differences between the cultivars influence the quality of tomato paste. The findings of this research will find applications in local tomato paste processing by taking advantage of unique characteristics presented by each cultivar.