Variability in the content of soluble sugars and cell wall polysaccharides in red‐ripe cherry and high‐pigment tomato cultivars

BACKGROUND: Soluble sugars and cell wall polysaccharides are well known for contributing to a range of ‘quality’ characteristics of fresh vegetables such as flavour, texture and healthy properties. Red‐ripe berries of 14 cultivars of cherry tomatoes and four cultivars of high‐pigment tomato hybrids, cultivated in the south of Italy, were analysed for their content of these important qualitative parameters. RESULTS: Sakura appeared to be the cultivar with the highest amount of soluble sugars (53 g kg^?1 fresh weight (f.w.)), mainly glucose and fructose, and, hence the ‘sweetest’ among cherry tomatoes. High‐pigment tomatoes, especially HLY02 and HLY13, showed a soluble sugar content much lower than cherry tomatoes, as expected for industrial, normal‐size tomatoes. Variations in the fructose/glucose ratio, of between 0.68 and 1.48, were evidenced among the different tomato cultivars. Cell wall polysaccharides isolated from whole fresh red‐ripe berries of each cultivar were analysed chemically. The amount of matrix polysaccharides (0.9–3.4 g kg^?1 f.w.) and cellulose (0.16–1.86 g kg^?1 f.w.), as well as their glycosidic composition, showed significant differences among the different cultivars. Cellulose to matrix polysaccharide ratio was highly variable and ranged between 0.06–1.44 and 0.17–0.77 in cherry and high‐pigment tomato cultivars, respectively. CONCLUSION: The differences evidenced in the total soluble sugar and cell wall polysaccharide composition, not only among different types of tomatoes but also different cultivars within the same typology, may play a fundamental role in the quality of tomatoes and deserve further investigations. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry