FEMA | N/A |
CAS | 17406-45-0 |
EINECS | 241-429-5 |
JECFA Food Flavoring | N/A |
CoE Number | N/A |
Organoleptic Notes |
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Odor | N/A |
Flavor | N/A |
Material Notes | an alkaloid that occurs in the extract of leaves of wild tomato plants. it has been found to inhibit the growth of various fungi and bacteria. it is used as a precipitating agent for steroids. (from the merck index, 11th ed) Tomatine is a mildly toxic glycoalkaloid or glycospirosolane (steroidal alkaloids whose structure contains a spirosolane skeleton) found in the stems and leaves of tomato plants as well as in the fruit of unripened (green) tomatoes (up to 500 mg/kg). Red, ripe tomatoes have somewhat reduced amounts of tomatine. A toxic dose of tomatine for an adult human would appear to require the consumption of at least 500 g of tomato leaves in one sitting (�Toxic Plants of North America� (Iowa State University Press, 2001)). Tomatine is known to have fungicidal and antimicrobial properties and is likely produced by tomato plants as a defense against bacteria, fungi, viruses, and insects (PMID: 19514731). Some microbes produce an enzyme called tomatinase which can degrade tomatine, rendering it ineffective as an antimicrobial (PMID: 18835993).Tomatine has historically been used as a reagent in analytical chemistry for precipitating cholesterol from solution (PMID: 4362143). When lab animals ingest tomatine, essentially all of it passes through the animal unabsorbed. Tomatine apparently binds to cholesterol in the digestive tract, and the largely insoluble combination is excreted � ridding the body of both the alkaloid and cholesterol. Experiments with hamsters have shown that both tomatine-rich green tomatoes and purified tomatine can substantially lower the levels of undesirable LDL cholesterol while maintaining normal levels of HDL (PMID: 10942315). Experiments with high-tomatine green tomato extracts were recently shown to strongly inhibit the growth of a number of human cancer cell lines including breast (MCF-7), colon (HT-29), gastric (AGS), and hepatoma (liver) (HepG2), as well as normal human liver cells (PMID: 19514731). Other studies have found that purified tomatine is an outstanding immunoadjuvant capable of stimulating potent antigen-specific humoral and cellular immune responses that contribute to protection against malaria, Francisella tularensis and regression of experimental tumors (PMID: 15193398). |