Ethnobotany of the Tomato Plant :: Botany Plant Genetics

Ethnobotany of the Tomato baseThe origin of the cultivated tomato plant is somewhat unclear. Ethnobotanists and contractableists however piss seek to track down the centre of domestication. The genus Lycopersicon- the botanical group to which the tomato belongs- is primeval to western South America, and only Lycopersicon lycopersicum var. cerasiforme, the foolish scarlet form of the cultivated species, has spread throughout Latin America and the newfound World Tropics. Second, the tomato was not known in Europe until after(prenominal) the discovery and conquest of America, descriptions and drawings first appearing in the European herbals of the fondness and late 16th century. Third, these writings clearly reveal that man had been hard to improve the size of the tomato and the diversity of its shape and color. These achievements over the wild ancestors were al around certainly achieved by early man in America. Mexico appears to have been the site of domestication and the s ource of the earliest introductions, and the wild cherry tomato was probably the immediate ancestor. As a matter of fact, the bulk of the historical, linguistic, archeologic and ethnobotanical evidence favours Mexico, particularly the Vera Cruz-Puebla area, as the source of the cultivated tomatoes that were first transported to the honest-to-god World. Although the origin of the tomato is somewhat clouded, there is no doubt that the cultigen of at present has had a long journey.When the tomato finally made its way to Europe, the prevalent responded with fear for several probable reasons. First, tomatoes belong to the family Solanaceae, which includes Datura and Belladonna - the deucedly nightshade, among other savage species. The assumption was that tomatoes must be poisonous as well. Second, in Germany, because of its terrible smell, the tomato plant was rejected. The tomato acquired names worry the Devils wolf apple. This great fear of toxicity of the tomato plant probab ly prevented its utilization for many centuries. Today, the toxicity of the Solanaceae family has been studied extensively, and it has been found that most of the species are posionous. Obviously Belladonna and Datura are among the more poisonous members of the family, but the potato plant is also quite toxic. Lycopersicon spp., which are less toxic than the other members of the family, contain tomatine, a toxic glycoalkaloid . umpteen wild relatives of the tomato such as Lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme, L. chilense, L. peruvianum, L. hirsutum, and L. pimpinellifolium are among the richest genetic pools available for cross breeding.