Tomatoes are one of the sources of anti-oxidants that cure many severe illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.
A study conducted by British researchers engineered tomatoes that contain anti-oxidants that can be gained only if fifty bottles of red wine are consumed. Researchers are using tomatoes again as the subject of their experiment recently and found that tomatoes can produce more antioxidant nutrients when zinc oxide and titanium dioxide nanoparticles are applied as fertilizer.
Pratim Biswas, professor and chair in the department of energy, environmental and chemical engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis stated, "When a plant grows, it signals the soil that it needs nutrients.
The nutrient it needs is not in a form that the plant can take right away, so it secretes enzymes, which react with the soil and trigger bacterial microbes to turn the nutrients into a form that the plant can use. We're trying to aid this pathway by adding nanoparticles."
