A multifactorial approach in characterizing geographical origin of Sicilian cherry tomatoes using ¹H-NMR profiling

In this study, metabolomic analysis of chloroform extracts was performed to characterize cherry tomatoes (cv Naomi and Shiren) grown in different Sicilian areas, using ¹H NMR spectroscopy coupled with multivariate statistical analysis. Principal components analysis showed clear discrimination between extracts of cherry tomatoes cultivated in two different seasons (winter and summer) and grown in three areas of Sicily (Gela, Licata, Pachino). In particular, carotenoids and phospholipids mainly were found to be more discriminating metabolites for both cultivars in summer and winter. In the present study, the simple separation only based on production area was found to be inadequate to distinguish the three groups of tomatoes. A clear separation among the different samples groups was obtained using a multifactorial approach not only based on the geographical origin classification, but considering also cultivar, year and seasonality.