Tomato | Description, Cultivation, & History - Britannica

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History

The wild species originated in the Andes Mountains of South America, probably mainly in Peru and Ecuador, and is thought to have been domesticated in pre-Columbian Mexico; its name is derived from the Náhuatl (Aztec) word tomatl. The tomato was introduced to Europe by the Spanish in the early 16th century, and the Spanish and Italians seem to have been the first Europeans to adopt it as a food. In France and northern Europe the tomato was initially grown as an ornamental plant and was regarded with suspicion as a food because botanists recognized it as a relative of the poisonous belladonna and deadly nightshade. Indeed, the roots and leaves of the tomato plant are poisonous and contain the neurotoxin solanine.

The Italians called the tomato pomodoro (“golden apple”), which has given rise to speculation that the first tomatoes known to Europeans were yellow. It has been suggested that the French called it pomme d’amour (“love apple”) because it was thought to have aphrodisiacal properties. Some scholars assert, however, that the tomato was at first taken to be a kind of eggplant, of which it is a close relative. The eggplant was called pomme des Mours (“apple of the Moors”) because it was a favourite vegetable of the Arabs, and pomodoro and pomme d’amour may be corruptions of that name.

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Tomatoes were introduced to North America from Europe. Thomas Jefferson is known to have raised them at Monticello in 1781. The tomato was used for food in Louisiana as early as 1812, but not in the northeastern states until about 1835. It did not attain widespread popularity in the United States until the early 20th century. The plant is now grown commercially throughout the world.

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