Acta Hortic. 1233. ISHS 2019. DOI 10.17660/ActaHortic.2019.1233.11 Proc. XV International Symposium on Processing Tomato Eds.: M. Cámara et al. 67 Organically grown high-lycopene tomatoes: a novel adventure within functional quality R. Ilahy 1,a , I. Tlili 1 , L. Helyes 2 , M.W. Siddiqui 3 , M.S. Lenucci 4 , Z. Pé k 2 and C. Hdider 1 1 University of Carthage, National Agricultural Research Institute of Tunisia, Tunis, Laboratory of Horticulture, Ariana, Tunisia; 2 Institute of Horticulture, Szent István University, Gödöllő, Hungary; 3 Department of Food Science and Postharvest Technology, Bihar Agricultural University, Bihar, India; 4 Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy. Abstract Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most important agricultural crops all over the world. It has hailed functional properties being characterized by the presence of many natural health promoting antioxidant compounds including vitamins, phenolics and carotenoids, particularly lycopene. The demand for organically grown produce has widely increased because of the commercial opportunities offered by such products, the increasing consumer awareness of the relationship between foods and health as well as environmental concerns. Introgression of the high-pigment (hp) and/or old-gold crimson (og c ) colour mutations into elite genotypes has led to the release of tomato cultivars with increased lycopene and functional quality. However, most of the commercially available high-lycopene (HLY) tomato cultivars were turned out and grown mainly under conventional farming systems. Hence there is a need to focus on the behaviour of HLY tomato cultivars under organic farming system. In this study the nutritional properties of two field HLY tomato cultivars (recently bred by the lab of Horticulture, INRAT) and the ordinary ‘Rio Grande’ grown organically in an open-field was determined. Significant differences were found between cultivars in the content of lycopene, total phenols and flavonoids, as well as hydrophilic, lipophilic and total antioxidant activities. Although these data require confirmation over a longer period of time, this investigation emphasizes the satisfactory behaviour of the studied HLY cultivars. Keywords: organic, hp, og c , organic farming, tomato fruits INTRODUCTION Besides the economic importance and the nutritional value of its fruits, tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), one of the most important agricultural crop worldwide, is rich in a plethora of natural antioxidants and bioactive compounds. The regular ingestion of an adequate amount of fresh tomatoes or processed tomato products has been inversely correlated with the development of widespread human diseases (Agarwal and Rao, 1998; Erdman et al., 2009; Prakash and Kumar , 2014) and with an increase in plasma lipid peroxidation levels (Giovannucci, 1999; Balestrieri et al., 2004). This protective effect has been mainly attributed to the carotenoid constituents of the ripe fruits, mainly lycopene and β-carotene, which act as antioxidants in detoxifying free radicals (Di Mascio et al., 1989; Stahl and Sies, 1996; Clinton, 1998; Erdman et al., 2009). Besides organoleptic and functional quality of fresh vegetables, consumers are increasingly demanding green and sustainable solutions to minimize the side effects of intensive high-input agriculture on environment and wildlife. Many countries are, thus, supporting the development of alternative agro-ecological cropping practices, such as integrated pest management and/or organic farming. Introgression of the high-pigment (hp) and/or old-gold crimson (og c ) colour mutations into elite genotypes has led to the release of a E-mail: bn.riadh@gmail.com All authors contributed equally to the work.