A saviour in red: Go tomatoes

A tomato a day keeps the doctor away. And no, that’s not a typing error. Find it hard to believe? You probably have not met Professor Asim Duttaroy.

"We found that extracts from tomatoes offer health benefits to the heart by reducing the accumulation of platelets that eventually leads to blood clots, heart attacks and strokes," says Duttaroy of the School of Medicine, University of Oslo, in an interview with XPRESS.

Duttaroy led a team of scientists at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, in studying the tomato’s anti-platelet factor, following which the discovery was patented in his name. The research screened almost all fruits and vegetables, before hitting upon the ‘tomato factor’, code-named P3.

Eating fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes, is already known to help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, but, until now the effect was attributed largely to antioxidants, such as vitamin C or lycopene.

Duttaroy and his team discovered that P3, found in the yellow juice around tomato seeds, has a different effect from antioxidants – it stops platelet cells in the blood clumping together.

Anti-platelet therapy in the form of aspirin is already routine among patients. However, it has side-effects which can cause stomach upset and bleeding.

"These findings may be welcome news to the rising number of people with Type 2 diabetes who have also an increased risk of cardiovascular problems from clotting. Smokers, long-distance travellers at risk for deep-vein thrombosis [abnormal blood clot inside a blood vessel] and people genetically predisposed to forming blood clots may also benefit from adding tomato products to their diet," says Duttaroy.