Purple colored fruits do exist in some wild tomato species;
however, such tomatoes have not been as popular as other
colored tomatoes largely because some wild purple tomatoes
also happen to contain small amounts of the poisonous alkaloid
tomatine.16 The Solanaceae (nightshade) family of plants, to
which the tomato belongs, contains both poisonous as well as
edible members. Because of the significant roles of anthocyanins
in maintaining human health and preventing diseases, efforts
have been made in breeding purple tomatoes for food with
enhanced human health benefits. Insofar, only one less known
variety has been planned to be released by Oregon State
University;17 however, nothing has been announced. A similar
breeding program to develop tomatoes rich in anthocyanins has
been initiated in Ontario. This program is directed toward
developing high-anthocyanin tomatoes suitable for processing,
in contrast to the programs at Oregon State University and at
Sakata Seed America, which are developing cultivars suitable for
fresh consumption. As a result, a purple breeding line V118, in a
processing tomato genetic background, was obtained independently
through traditional cross-breeding (Figure 1). The ultimate
goal of our program is to produce a commercial variety that