Bio Tomato

Tomato is a vegetable whose road through history was not easy and filled with numerous misconceptions and roadblocks.

Finally in the last few centuries this South American plant managed to spread all across the world, becoming one of the best know food ingredients and one of the most beloved vegetables (even though technically its classified as a fruit). Selective breeding managed to refine tomato into very nutritious state, filled with vitamin A, C, E, antioxidants, and more.

The exact origin of Tomato plant is not known, although it is speculated that it evolved from the prehistoric plant Nighshade over millions of years ago in South America (together with potato, tobacco and chili peppers) and slowly moved to north until it was domesticated in the lands of Mesoamerica between Mexico and northern Costa Rica. This land was a home of several advanced Pre-Columbian society who flourished there until arrival of Europeans in the Age of Discovery.

During 500 BC, one of those cultures managed to domesticate tomato and integrate it into their cuisine.

That culture was Aztecs. From that point on, tomato slowly spread across the central and South America, somewhere being used as a food, but somewhere also being used as a hallucinogenic (a use that will later on be a cause of many misconceptions about this vegetable).

Source: Vegetables Facts