Pharmaceuticals from Tomatoes – How to Turn Plants into Bio

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Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie

The next step was the introduction of this protein into tomato plants to activate the production of requested compounds in the fruits. Additionally, it was necessary to integrate genes for enzymes from grapes or soybean. Herewith, the researchers managed to integrate a new pathway into tomato plants, which allows the production of resveratrol and genistein.

Tomatoes with an Economical Edge

The integration of valuable compounds into tomatoes has economic advantages. The tomato is a high yielding crop - producing up to 500 tons per hectare in countries delivering the highest yields (FAOSTAT 2013). This qualifies them to work as bio-factories to produce industrial quantities of natural compounds of use. Moreover, they are easy to handle: they can be harvested and juiced and the valuable compounds can be extracted from the juice and directly used as pharmaceuticals in medicine.

The authors state, that this technique could also be applied to other compounds. Such production systems are easier and faster in contrast to chemical synthesis or through extraction from traditional plant sources which contain only tiny amounts of respective natural products.

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Pharmaceuticals from Tomatoes – How to Turn Plants into Bio–Factories

Tomatoes with an Economical Edge