Red hot chilli tomato may be on menu if study proves fruitful

Adding a spicy kick to a tomato sandwich or pasta sauce may get considerably easier if the recently published work of researchers from NUI Galway goes on to find itself a place on the culinary landscape.

Experts from the university’s plant and botany science department have outlined a novel way to activate the normally silent components of a tomato which are also found in chilli peppers .

The research remains hypothetical, but could be used to cultivate a new red hot chilli tomato with a benefit that is likely to extend beyond menus and help in the fight against serious illnesses.

The scientific paper co-authored by NUIG's Dr Ronan Sulpice and researchers from the Federal University of Viçosa in Brazil has just been published in the international journal Trends in Plant Science.

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If their theories bear fruit in the growing fields of South America later this year then it could make it easier to develop certain drugs faster and more economically than at present.

In the paper, the research points to ways gene editing technology could be used for the production of tomatoes made with the spicy compound found in chilli peppers.

It suggests the spicy tomatoes could subsequently be commercialised for food consumption, but stresses the main aim would be to use them as biofactories for capsaicinoids production.

Capsaicinoids are the compounds that give chilli peppers their heat and are found in almost all peppers, primarily in the seeds. They have significant nutritional and commercial uses in cancer treatment, anti-inflammatory and pain medication, as well as in pepper spray.

The rationale is that tomatoes traditionally have a more stable and much higher yield than peppers, with up to 110 tonnes of fruit per hectare compared to around three tonnes per hectare where chillies are grown.

If the chilli factor was ignited in tomatoes it would allow for a much higher production of capsaicinoids.

Currently efforts are ongoing in Brazil to produce the tomatoes, and first results are expected by the end of this year.

"All genes necessary for the production of capsaicinoids are already present in tomatoes," said Dr Ronan Sulpice from Plant and Botany Science, Ryan Institute at NUI Galway. "However, they are silent, and we are proposing to activate them using gene editing technology."

He said the challenge was “massive because the pathway responsible for the synthesis of these compounds is very complex, so we are very likely far from the day we will consume spicy tomatoes.”