Abstract
Much amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides have been widely used to improve crop production. However, consumers have been interested in safety and security of food. Organic food is encouraged to be produced, especially in the aspect of environmental protection. Organic foods are believed to be superior than conventionally cultivated food in taste, nutrition and flavor, moreover for human health. There is no scientific data about the difference in metabolites between organic and conventional food. Mini tomatoes were cultivated in either organic or chemical fertilizers with or without pesticides. Fruits were harvested and soluble extracts were analyzed by proton NMR. The spectrum were analyzed by principle component analysis (PCA). Proton NMR is very useful for metabolite fingerprinting or profiling, because it can detect metabolites without isolation procedures. GC and HPLC are necessary to isolate metabolites before detection. PCA shows that there are some difference between organic and conventional cultivars. Loading values shows that sugars seem to contribute these differences. Two dimensional 13C-HSQC are required to identify contributed metabolites.
