Tomato crop plant as a weed

Abstract

Tomato is extensively consumed in Delhi area in both cooked and raw forms. Live tomato seeds could reach the sewage system via kitchen and market waste or as undigested human excreta. To ascertain the latter possibility, two persons were fed with 1 kg ripe tomato each over a period of 12 h. Their faeces over the next 72 h was mixed with sterile soil and tested for production of tomato seedlings. Abundance of tomato seedlings obtained in this experiment suggested that tomato seeds can pass through the human digestive tract.