A Tomato Of A Different Color

CBS Evening News: Scientists Add Cancer-Fighting Property To Garden-Variety Fruit

(CBS)  We've always been told fruit is good for you, but never this good.

A new study has shown that, with a little help from science, some fruit may even cure cancer, CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports.

The trick for genetic scientists was to take the natural cancer-fighting dark pigment that exists in blueberries and cranberries, for example, and produce it in more commonly available fruit ... like the garden variety tomato.

"Genetic modification is a technology," said genetic scientist Prof. Cathie Martin. "We can do some good things, which offer real advantages to consumers."

It turns out that when genes from the snapdragon flower are inserted into tomatoes, which have small amounts of the anti-cancer agent, they produce more of it. And when those tomatoes are fed to a cancer-prone breed of laboratory mice, they live longer.

A cancer-curing tomato may be good news - if you're a mouse.

But it's a long way from curing lab rats to curing people. Especially when the process turns the bright red tomato a deep, dark purple.

Don't expect the purple tomato to show up in supermarkets anytime soon. Years of testing are required to see if it really works and what its other effects might be.

"They have to see whether this tomato can be grown on a commercial scale - and whether they can ensure regulatory safety. Do the tests that show it is safe to eat and safe for the environment?" explained Greg Jaffe of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Here's another thing. The anti-cancer properties of the tomatoes improve with cooking, posing another question: is the world ready for purple pizza?

[william8881]

That guy who wrote that book ''The Andromeda Strain'' I heard was writing another story about DNA manipulation in plants. I heard that plant DNA is even longer and more complex than human DNA. In this new story, the exact same thing as this happens. They genetically engineer a crop that can grow in say, a desert.. and unfortunately this new plant DNA develops a plant DNA virus that kills every other living plant on the planet in 6 months. Everybody dies..

[william8881]

So take yer micheal jackson tomato and stick it where the sun don''t shine, mr. egghead.

[juwboy]

alphaa01000 -- a frequent contributor who doesn`t know how to use Google.

[perk235]

I agree with alphaa0100. More specifics, such as the name of the molecule as well as where the study is being done are needed. It wouldn''t take much room to add a few more specifics.

[juwboy]

perk235:

The names of the research facility and the pigment can be found elsewhere on the Internet.

[juwboy]

perk235:

... and so can the source for the transplanted gene.

[urboydigger]

OK Juwboy, but it''s not unreasonable to expect CBS provide a complete story that includes details such as ''where'' a study took place.

[cfin5]

One thing that I have done for years and years when canning spaghetti sauce is to leave the peels and seeds in. I don''t blanch off the peels, that takes way too much time. What I do is core and pare away anything bad, quarter the tomato, then throw the whole thing into a big blender. If you don''t blend up the peels completely, you will get "peel noodles" in your sauce as they will roll themselves up when cooking them down. When you can''t see any peel parts whirling around in the vase, wait 10 more seconds of pureeing and your done. Take the red foam to the pot and start cooking it down. It will return to a very FIBER RICH juice.There''s no sense in throwing all that fiber away and making it harder ta''boot. Doing it this way, I can from start to finish unto a rolling boil, do a whole big 2 wheeled barrow full of Roma''s in 3 hours. This usually when cooked down a day later will give me 32''ish quarts of finished spaghetti sauce........ Did 155 quarts of organically grown sauce this year. Keep your TV, it''s so boring and lewd,....leads to an attitude of death. Home canning is fun and interesting,....leads to a healthy attitude towards life.