Poma amoris, or apple of love
 It is so named tomatoes romantic French. Researchers believe that tomatoes are home to the Galapagos Islands and a narrow part along the Pacific coast of South America.

The Incas, who live in Chile, Peru and Ecuador, was cultivated from time immemorial. Tomatoes grown in Mexico, where the Aztecs cultivated them, is taken from the Mexican Spanish tomatoes to their homeland in the XVI century.

However, the original name «Tumantla» That means - more berries, the Spaniards reduced to «tomat». That's the word, and stuck in most languages ​​of the world.

European botanists first described tomatoes Mattioli, describing them as, somehow «mala insana» - unhealthy fruit. Perhaps this misconception botany and long negatively affected the image of the plant. Almost until the XIX century tomatoes are not eaten, seriously believing that they can be poisoned. In the US as well until 1840 believed tomatoes poisonous ...

Arrived in the XVI century in Europe began to grow tomatoes as a beautiful ornamental plant. When the French royal court he named "apple of love» (pomme d amou), and attributed to an aphrodisiac. In Russia, the tomato was only in the XVIII century, and in 1780 it had already started to grow in the Crimea.

Tomato - Lycopersicon esculentum Mill   - An annual herbaceous plant of the family Solanaceae. The plant has a highly branched and quite a strong root system that can be enhanced at the expense of branching and rooting laterals. The bulk of the roots is located at a depth of 30-50 cm. Stem tomatoes have direct or decumbent laden with fruit. The whole plant is covered with glandular hairs, making the tomatoes have a pungent smell deters many insect pests.

The leaves are green, pinnatipartite or pinnately broken with a very short stem, passing into the main vein of the leaf. The flowers are small yellow, like the stars. Tomatoes - self-pollinating plant, but the plant pollen carried by the wind and heavy in the dry and hot weather at a distance of half a meter. Flowering plant in May - June.

The fruit - fleshy succulent many gnёzdnaya berry, round, oblong, heart prominent, pear, shapes of different sizes and weights. Painting of ripe tomatoes is also very diverse - from yellow, almost white, pink to orange, bright red and almost black. Fruits ripen in July - September. Seeds are small, flat, egg-shaped, triangular, oval, light-yellow or grayish-yellow. Remain viable for 4 to 14 years.

In today's world of tomatoes it is one of the most popular and in-demand crops. They are grown in almost the entire territory of Russia. Especially large areas they occupy in the Volga region and the North Caucasus.

 Poma amoris, or apple of love
   Tomato fruits are a storehouse of vitamins and minerals. It contains vitamins - B1, B2, B3, PP, C, carotene, carbohydrates, malic, citric, oxalic, tartaric, organic acids, fats, pectins, proteins, starch, cellulose, enzymes, sugars, trace elements - iodine, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, ... contained in the grass plants glycoalkaloid Tomatin having antibiotic action on some fungi, bacteria and insects.

Tomatoes are widely used not only in ordinary cooking, and in clinical nutrition.

- A large number of vitamins and minerals in combination with dietary fiber and pectin makes tomatoes Doctors at various metabolic disorders.

- Tomatoes reduce high blood pressure, helps with anemia, weakness, dizziness, in diseases of the cardiovascular system and the stomach, liver disease, including cirrhosis.

- People suffering from obesity, nutritionists recommend handling tomato day 2-3 times a week.

In folk medicine,   mush from ripe tomato is used as a wound-healing agent, and gastric and duodenal ulcers.

- Lycopene, one of the substances contained in tomatoes, is an effective and preventive oncology, linking free radicals in the body, slows the aging process.

- Even our ancestors noticed that the tomato lovers never suffer from bouts of melancholy is in the tomato pulp, it contains a large number of serotonin, which is especially valuable in our time, when many people suffer from depression.

Limit tomatoes in the diet is necessary only when the gallbladder disease and gallstones.

- For the treatment of purulent wounds . Fruits are washed, scald, peel, scroll through a meat grinder and the resulting slurry was applied to the wound or to the place with the inflamed skin.

 Poma amoris, or apple of love
   Tomatoes have long and successfully used in folk cosmetics . They have a refreshing, soothing, lightening and anti-aging properties.

- For wrinkles . 1 large tomato, scald, peel, chop, put between layers of gauze and on the face for 10-15 minutes. Rinse with water at room temperature. The course is notable for the rejuvenation of the mask 21 in 1-2 days. 15-20 days break. And repetition rate. The skin becomes supple, soft, cells will recover quickly.

- To cleanse the skin and tightening pores . The pulp of fresh ripe tomatoes and rub through a sieve without seeds impose on clean face, neck and neck for 15 minutes. In the eye area a lot not apply. Wash first with warm, then cold water.

- Tomato Whitening Mask . Tomatoes cut into slices and put on face. After 20 minutes, rinse with water at room temperature and apply a moisturizer.

- For oily skin . Tomatoes turn into mush, and add a spoonful of chopped 1st Class on a coffee grinder oatmeal and ½ teaspoon of lemon juice.
After 15-20 minutes, rinse with warm, then cold water.

- Tomato juice rubbed into the hair roots for their growth and splendor.

- If fresh tomato juice to wipe the body after each shower or bath, the skin will soon become soft and supple, like a young girl.
Author: Natalia Alexeeva