Pomodoro San Marzano DOP - Danicoop Società Cooperativa Agricola

The most famous vegetable in the world; at first used merely as an ornament it became the king of food products thanks to its many components: vitamins, potassium, phosphorus, beta-carotene. It also contains lycopene, a pigment regarded as a potential anticancer agent. Another health-giving property of the tomato has just been recognised. A group of research workers from the Biomolecular Chemistry Institute (ICB) of the National Research Council (CNR) in Pozzuoli and from the Department of Experimental Pharmacology of the Faculty of Biological Science of the Federico II University of Naples have been studying the effects of a polysaccharide, purified from tomato skins, on a cell line of macrophages stimulated so as to obtain an inflammatory response. Our findings, published in the Journal of Natural Products, explains Barbara Nicolaus of ICB-NCR, show that this polysaccharide can inhibit the expression of the gene that encodes inducible nitric oxide synthase, regulated by the NF-kB transcription factor, which plays a key role in the inflammatory process. Activation of the NF-kB transcription factor is markedly reduced by the polysaccharide.