In Spain in 2024, tomatoes taste like nothing, but in Albacete they live in 2124: welcome to “Tomafran”

These are not tomatoes, these are small factories that produce everything we are interested in about saffron (but much cheaper).

Looks like a regular tomato. Yes, the one that smells and tastes like saffron; but it wants more. Since saffron is one of the jewels in La Mancha’s crown, some of the most advanced genetic engineering techniques are not used to create the “curious” tomato.

It looks like a simple tomato, but it wants to be a weapon against Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and dozens of neurodegenerative diseases. And besides, it seems to be delicious.

What did saffron hide? Because saffron is not only one of the most sought after foods on the planet, but it is also a food full of compounds with neuroprotective properties. Things like crocins, which have “health benefits in the prevention and treatment of numerous diseases” such as cognitive dysfunction or memory problems.

Lourdes Gomez, the UCLA genetics professor who is behind it all, noted a couple of years ago that these properties of saffron are well known. And not only to treat “various types of diseases associated with neurodegenerative problems, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or dementia,” but also to “address the problem of treating new diseases (such as) the development of tumors, such as brain tumors.”

The obvious problem is that saffron is expensive. Too expensive. So they started thinking about ideas for producing these compounds in a different way and eventually came across tomatoes. They discovered that a new plant could be created “by synthesizing the pigments that give saffron its color and flavor.”

“We took three saffron genes plus a selection gene and put in a promoter that simply acts as a switch, telling the genes where to express them. Thus, the genes are expressed only in saffron fruits. tomato and not disturb the plant, which allows it to grow normally,” explained Osama Ahrazem, one of the researchers in Gomez’s laboratory.

Crocin factory and much more. Because the benefits are not limited to just the “resultant” tomato (and even more so in places like the European Union, where getting approval for transgenic products is very difficult), but these tomato plants make it possible to cheaply produce all those things that, once processed, can be used in as additives.

New normal. Although, as I say, we have a harder time encountering them in Europe, these types of foods (“genetically enriched”) are destined to become central to the diet and health of half the world. So much so that when some of these products are banned, the scandal becomes international.

But, as we see, this has just begun.

Image | Ayu Anistiari – Vera De

In Hatak | They may not look like the best in the world, but these tomatoes want to revolutionize the way we fight Parkinson’s disease in many countries around the world.