The tomato is a vegetable that has many beneficial properties for the body, and its conscious consumption can certainly be healthy. Certain varieties of tomatoes maximize the benefits by being particularly rich in antioxidant substances.
The color of the skin and the pulp of the tomato can be a simple indicator: the black tomato owes its color to its high content of anthocyanins, lycopene, a very powerful antioxidant carotenoid. The anthocyanins present in black tomatoes help fight tumors.
Growing black tomatoes is in every way similar to growing traditional tomatoes, so you can find great advice in our tomato growing guide, which covers from planting to harvesting how to grow organic tomatoes. Black tomato seeds are easy to get these days, as they are quite common in cultivation, both in traditional nurseries and online seed stores.
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Lycopene in black tomatoes
Lycopene is a delta-carotene hydrocarbon – acidic hydrocarbon, this sequence of words will not say anything to many, but it is important to know that this substance is really important for the human body, especially against free radicals and therefore to reduce aging of our cells.
Lycopene is present in the human body, it is the most widespread carotenoid in our body, both in plasma and in tissues. 80% of the lycopene we have in the body comes from tomatoes, although the substance is found in other plants such as apricots, watermelons and grapefruits.
Lycopene is present in all varieties of tomatoes, and with ripening the concentration of the substance increases. Tomatoes that take on darker colors contain higher concentrations and are therefore particularly interesting to grow in the vegetable garden. Lycopene is also used as a colorant.
Humans assimilate lycopene more easily from tomato purees and concentrates, that of fresh tomatoes is more difficult to absorb, so to maximize the benefits of black tomatoes you must make a good tomato sauce.
varieties of black tomatoes
There are different varieties of black tomatoes, some are red, with only dark streaks or concentrated color even in the liquid part with the seeds, others are definitely dark and very picturesque. In any case, it is difficult for tomatoes to come out completely black, which is why they are also called purple tomatoes or blue tomatoes, in English, in addition to “black” “purple” is used
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Among the most common varieties of black tomatoes, the Crimean black is remembered, with a rather large and very juicy fruit, which quickly changes from immature to ripe, black cherry, a vine tomato. There are also endless variations of these black tomatoes: from purple cheroekee to dark plum.
Buy black tomato seeds
It is not always easy to find black tomato seeds, I would like to point out some varieties that can be purchased online.
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Crimean black tomato. The lycopene-rich tomato, a large, juicy, early-ripening fruit, is one of the oldest and most common black tomato varieties. The organic seeds of this tomato can be found here.
- black cherry tomatoes . Dark red to black cherry tomatoes, really delicious. Organic seeds available here .
“Black Cherry” Cherry Tomato – at 16 euros 2.95 Discover the detail… B805 – Tomato Noir De Crimee 6.05 Discover the detail…
In addition to black tomatoes, there are dozens of tomato cultivars, if you want to be better oriented you can read our advice on which variety of tomatoes to plant in your garden.