Abstract:

Five processed tomato varieties primarily grown in the Yanqi Basin were chosen as experimental materials. Five cultivated fields, which had varying selenium levels (Se_0.309, Se_0.349, Se_0.400, Se_0.408, Se_0.495), were selected as the test sites in Yanqi County with the widespread presence of selenium-rich soil. The objectives of this study were to investigate the impact of selenium levels on the quality of processed tomatoes from various sources, provide data to support the production of selenium-rich tomato products on the naturally selenium-rich soil in Yanqi Basin, and enhance the overall quality of processed tomatoes. The results indicated that the selenium content, lycopene content, reducing sugar content, total acid content, and sugar-acid ratio of different processed tomato varieties varied with the increase of selenium level. The selenium content of ‘Tunhe 1015’ and ‘Tunhe 5501’ exhibited an increasing trend. The lycopene content of ‘Tunhe 3501’ and ‘Tunhe 17’ significantly increased. The reducing sugar content of ‘Tunhe 1943’ also increased significantly, along with a significant increase in the total acid content of ‘Tunhe 1943’. Furthermore, the sugar-acid ratio of ‘Tunhe 1943’ and ‘Tunhe 5501’ displayed a decreasing trend, while the sugar-acid ratio of ‘Tunhe 17’ showed an increasing trend. The selenium level gradient from the ground source in this study was relatively small. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the selenium level gradient from the ground source further to verify the changing trends in selenium content, lycopene content, reducing sugar content, total acid content, and other quality parameters of different processed tomatoes.

Key words: ground source selenium, processed tomato, quality, Yanqi Basin, selenium-rich tomato