Influence of tomato genotype to phenolic compounds content and antioxidant activity as reaction to early blight

Abstract

Early blight is one of the most common and destructive tomato disease and it is caused by the fungus Alternaria solani. The aim of this paper was to screen the reaction of ten tomato genotypes (collection of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops) against natural infection of early blight. Tested genotypes showed significant differences in the disease occurrence on leaves but not on fruits. However, at the biochemical level, total phenolics (TP), tannins (TT), flavonoids (TF) and antioxidant activity in tomato fruits was significantly affected by genotype, disease occurrence and interaction of these two factors. According to obtained results, content of these secondary metabolites could be used as a one of the parameters in the evaluation of tomato resistance to EB.