Is tomato juice good for you? How tomato genome can kill salmonella bacteria

Tomato juice can kill the superbug salmonella and should be added to your diet immediately, a new study has suggested.

Scientists have shown that tomato juice also kills other bacteria that can harm people's digestive and urinary tract health. Salmonella Typhi is a human-specific pathogen often transmitted in food that causes all the symptoms of food poisoning.

The team from Cornell University in New York, USA, set out to discover which antimicrobial peptides in tomato juice made it so effective against salmonella. They discovered that tomato juice kills both salmonella typhi and its variants leading to a far healthier gut.

This is down to antimicrobial peptides in the tomato genome, which are very small proteins that impair the bacterial membrane that keeps them as intact organisms.

Associate Professor Dr Jeongmin Song from the University's department of microbiology and immunology, said: "Our main goal in this study was to find out if tomato and tomato juice can kill enteric pathogens, including Salmonella Typhi, and if so, what qualities they have that make them work. Our research shows that tomato and tomato juice can get rid of enteric bacteria like Salmonella.”

The researchers said they hope that when the public learns about the outcome of the study, they will want to eat and drink more tomatoes as well as other fruits and vegetables.