Another lycopene, more easily absorbed raw

[Patrina_Pepperina]

I found an interesting site that researches nutrients in heirloom food crops and they found a form of lycopene that exists in some orange varieties of tomato and is easily absorbed in raw fruit stage. It’s Tetra-cis-lycopene.

There’s a list of varieties, one of which is Elbe which is the parent of 2 orange dwarfs for our project, Dwarf Blazing Beauty and Dwarf Orange Cream.

The lycopene we’re all familiar with is best absorbed in things that have been boiled a while like ketchup and passata.

Link to the list of known tomatoes with this different lycopene:

tetra-cis-lycopene

Very interesting to browse the whole website:

heritagefoodcrops.org

Patrina