History of the tomato

The tomato (lycopersicum esculentum) is a herbaceous plant, it is part of the solanaceae family like the potato, the pepper, the aubergine, tobacco and belladonna.

The tomato was firstly cultivated in Peru, country of origin of the potato.
The tomato comes from a wild solanace, a cherry tomato, which still exists in Mexico, in the Veracruz region. The plants were similar to vines and gave small fruits known locally by the name tomalt.

Later the Mexican Indians cultivated them amongst the corn plants.

In 1544 it was known in Europe, thanks to the writings of a certain Mathiolu, who found points in common with the Mandrake, a reputed aphrodisiac. It was therefore christened love-apple.
The Italians immediately adopted it, and because of its yellow colour, named it pomo d'oro, which means golden apple. Nowdays, the tomato is still called pomodoro in Italian.
The Italians were eating it in 1550, while in other European countries it was considered poisonous. This was due to it being from the solanaceae family (like belladonna and tobacco) and so it was cultivated elsewhere as an ornamental plant.

In the XVIII century, in the south of Naples, Italian gardeners cultivated it regularly, then at the end of the century the first factories making tomato sauce appeared in Italy.

The Italians took 200 years before using it in their recipes and 300 years to obtain plants bearing large tomatoes, and its not until at the debut of the XX century that finally it became widespread.
It's thanks then to the Italians, and not the Spanish, who imported the tomato into Europe, that the tomato is widespread, has travelled throughout the world and has finally returned to America...

Today, this tropical plant has adapted to regions colder than those of its country of origin, and the tomato is grown in hot and temperate countries throughout the entire world.