Bioengineered tomato fights cancer.

• Position: Antioxidants - Medical research - Brief Article

Lycopene is a pigment that gives tomatoes their characteristic red color. It is one of hundreds of carotenoids that color fruits and vegetables red, orange, or yellow. Of these pigments, the most familiar is beta-carotene, which is found in carrots. In the body, these pigments capture electrically charged oxygen molecules that can damage tissue. Because of this, they are called antioxidants.

Lycopene has been the focus of much attention since 1995, when a six-year study of nearly 48,000 men by Harvard University researchers found that those who ate at least 10 servings of foods per week containing tomato sauce or tomatoes were 45% less likely to develop prostate cancer, while those who ate four to seven servings per week were 20% less likely to do so.

Subsequent research has found that lycopene reduces the amount of oxidized Low-density lipoprotein--the so-called bad cholesterol--and therefore may lower the risk of heart disease. As an antioxidant, lycopene is able to capture twice as many oxygen ions in the body as beta-carotene is. "This characteristic may be responsible for lycopene's ability to mitigate epithelial cancers, such as breast cancer and prostate cancer, and for its ability to mitigate coronary artery disease," explains Autar Mattoo...