U.S. flagAn official website of the United States government
                    Here's how you know **Official websites use .gov**
                            
                            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
 **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
                            
                            A **lock** (                            
                              A locked padlock                                                      
                            
                            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Menu Agricultural Research Service
						
                    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 Produce Safety and Microbiology Research: Albany, CA
 close



    Research

                    Research Projects
                                    Publications
                                    Collaborations
                                    News
                People

                    Staff Listing
                                    CareersSearch small
                    Search
            
            ARS Home
                                About ARS
                                Contact Us




ARS Home Pacific West Area Albany, California Western Regional Research Center Produce Safety and Microbiology Research Research Publications at this Location





- ARS National Programs
- Search for a scientific manuscript
- Search for a research project
- ARS Software
- Programs and Projects
- Collaborations
- Subjects of Investigation
- Publications

Title:   Author  item
                                            Friedman, Mendelitem
                                            Levin, Carolitem
                                            LEE, SEUNG-UN - Uiduk Universityitem
                                            HYUNG-JEONG, KIM - Keimyung Universityitem
                                            LEE, IN-SEON - Keimyung Universityitem
                                            BYUN, JAE-OKE - Daegu Universityitem
                                            KOSUKUE, NOBUYUKI - Uiduk University
  Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
                                    Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
                                    Publication Acceptance Date: 5/22/2009
                                    Publication  Date: 6/10/2009
                                    Citation: Friedman, M., Levin, C.E., Lee, S., Hyung-Jeong, K., Lee, I., Byun, J., Kosukue, N. 2009. Tomatine-Containing Green Tomato Extracts Inhibit Growth of Human Breast, Colon, Liver, and Stomach Cancer Cells. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 57:5727-5733.Interpretive Summary: In a collaborative study with colleagues at Korean universities, we found that tomatine-rich green tomato extracts and pure tomatine inhibited the growth of cancer cells.  These findings extend related observations on the anticarcinogenic potential and other beneficial effects of the tomato glycoalkaloid tomatine and suggest that consumers may benefit by not only eating high-lycopene red tomatoes, but also high-tomatine green tomatoes.  Our results also suggest the need to create high-tomatine red tomatoes as well as tomatine-containing potatoes.  Such tomatine containing potatoes are currently being developed by John Bamberg associated with the USDA/ARS Vegetable Crops Research Unit, Madison, Wisconsin.
                                Technical Abstract: Tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum) synthesize the glycoalkaloids dehydrotomatine and a–tomatine, possibly as a defense against bacteria, fungi, viruses, and insects.  We investigated six green and three red tomato extracts for their ability to induce cell death in human cancer and normal cells using a microculture tetrazolium (MTT) assay.  Compared to untreated controls, the high-tomatine green tomato extracts strongly inhibited the following human cancer cell lines: breast (MCF-7), colon (HT-29), gastric (AGS), hepatoma (liver) (HepG2), as well as normal human liver cells (Chang).  There was little inhibition of the cells by the three low-tomatine red tomato extracts.  We also evaluated cell death induced by the pure glycoalkaloids dehydrotomatine and a-tomatine isolated from green tomatoes and characterized by HPLC, GC, and GC/MS, as well as their respective aglycones tomatidenol and tomatidine.  a-Tomatine was highly effective in inhibiting all the cell lines.  Dehydrotomatine, tomatidenol, and tomatidine had little, if any effect on cell inhibition.  The results show that the susceptibility to destruction varies with the nature of the alkaloid and plant extract and the type of cancer cell.  These findings extend related observations on the anticarcinogenic potential of glycoalkaloids and suggest that consumers may benefit by not only eating high-lycopene red tomatoes, but also green tomatoes containing glycoalkaloids.  Possible mechanisms of the anticarcinogenic and other beneficial effects and the significance of the cited observations for breeding improved tomatoes and for the human diet are discussed.


Return to top


Connect with ARS Sign up


ARS Home
                            USDA.gov
                            Plain Writing
                            Policies & Links
                            Civil Rights Statements
                            FOIA
                            Accessibility Statement
                            Privacy Policy
                            Non-Discrimination Statement
                            Quality of Information
                            USA.gov
                            WhiteHouse.gov