Assessment of the Differences in the Agronomic Traits and Phytochemical Contents in Three Popular Tropical Tomato Cultivars

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is highly popular because of its versatility and the nutrient content of the fruit. Three tropical tomato cultivars; “Red Rock”, “Super Star”, and “Tropical” grown in controlled greenhouse conditions, were investigated to ascertain the influence of cultivar on the agronomic traits and phytochemical contents of fruits. Wide ranges of variation were found between cultivars for plant height, flower and fruit yield. Flowers of each cultivar varied in numbers of sepal and petals (5–6), style length (6.95–7.52 mm) and pollen size (20.64–28.81 µm) with ovary locules varying from three (Super Star) to five (Tropical). Tropical showed the highest fruit weight (fresh weight; 1.67–2.29-fold) and area (1.12–1.21-fold) compared to Red Rock and Super Star. Super Star showed the highest antioxidant (1.03–1.05-fold), total phenol (1.49–1.63-fold), total flavonoid (1.10–1.23-fold), total anthocyanin (1.86–3.48-fold) and lycopene content (2.22–1.05-fold) compared to Red Rock and Tropical. Red Rock showed the highest total sugar (2.16–4.45-fold) and Tropical (1.53–1.19-fold) showed the highest ascorbic acid content. PCA analysis of ten measured traits showed 92.27% of the total variability and a strong correlation between fruit characteristics and phytochemical properties. Total phenol, total flavonoid, antioxidant activity and total anthocyanins showed a positive correlation with each other and a negative correlation with ascorbic acid content and fruit weight. Total flavonoids and total sugar were positively correlated with each other and negatively correlated with lycopene and fruit weight. PCA showed a strong association of phytochemical properties with fruit characteristics. This study can serve as a reference for trait-based breeding studies in tomatoes.