Organic tomato cultivation is growing all over the world due to its healthy functional properties and environmental concerns. Recently, some new varieties with increased functional properties, particularly high lycopene, have been developed. However, few were assessed under organic farming systems. The objective of this study was to evaluate physico-chemical properties and the main bioactive compound contents, as well as lipophilic, hydrophilic and total radical scavenging activities of a recently developed high lycopene tomato variety homozygous for hp-2dg genes (HLT-F71) grown under organic conditions for two non-consecutive years (2019 and 2021) compared to the ordinary control ‘Nemador’ variety. The lycopene, β-carotene, total phenol, flavonoid, vitamin C, radical scavenging activity and tocopherols were analyzed by using spectrophotometric and HPLC methods, respectively. The high lycopene content variety presented suitable marketable yield, average fruit weight, pH, titratable acidity, firmness and higher °Brix, pulp color than the control. Additionally, it has significantly higher lycopene, β-carotene, total phenol, flavonoid, vitamin C and particularly considerable α-tocopherol contents, as well as radical scavenging activity. The high lycopene tomato variety with hp genes proved to be an effective sustainable variety for enhancing tomato fruit yield and functional properties even under organic grown conditions.

Organic tomato production is increasing worldwide, thus making necessary the development of varieties adapted to this farming system. It is now well known that the implementation of local tomato plant breeding programs for organic farming is required to increase the performance of varieties in this typology of cultivation regime. In this research, the agronomic performance, nutraceutical contents, and radical scavenging activity of a tomato germplasm line (OSTGL), selected under organically grown conditions, were evaluated for two consecutive years (2018 and 2019) in comparison with the variety ‘Rio Grande’, frequently grown organically in Tunisia. Carotenoids, phenolics, vitamin C, and radical scavenging capacity were assayed spectrophotometrically, while tocopherols were analyzed by HPLC. All data were not affected by year-to-year variability. The OSTGL line showed significantly higher marketable yield, total phenol, flavonoid, vitamin C, α-tocopherol and γ-tocopherol contents, along with radical scavenging activity. The OSTGL red-ripe berries also showed comparable values for average weight, soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity, firmness and coloration, as well as lycopene and β-carotene contents. This open pollinated tomato germplasm line demonstrated to be an effective sustainable variety for improving fruit yield, agronomic, and nutraceutical characteristics under an organic management system.