User:Mariusdihr/sandbox

Tomatillo as food
The tomatillo can be harvested at different stages of its development. For the famous salsa verde, it is harvested early, when the fruit is rather sour and has a light taste. For a sweeter taste, it can be picked later, when the fruit is seedier. In this stage, it could be suitable as a tomato substitute.

Tomatillos can also be dried. The sweetness of the fruit is then further enhanced and is reminiscent of dried cranberries with a hint of tomato flavour.

The tomatillo flavour is different to popular european vegetables, but not very exotic, therefore the fruit could gain european mainstream acceptance but also be a possibility for new culinary experiences. It is already used in the fusion cuisine, which tries to blend flavours from Latin American dishes with those of European and North America. But the different usage possibilities, linked to different harvesting points and drying, remain largely unexploited in Europe.

Tomatillo as a medicine
Native Americans have used the fruits as a medicine against headache and stomach trouble and used it as a dressing for wounds. Recent studies have found withanolides in plant and fruit tissue which have strong anti-proliferative activity. In 2006 Choi et al. evaluated the anti-proliferative properties of withanolides extracted from tomatillos on cancer cells. They came to the conclusion that the withanolides, especially Ixocarpalactone A, may have cancer chemopreventive properties.

In 2015 Gallagher et al. achieved a 60% volume reduction in triple negative breast cancer in a mouse experiment. This indicates that Physalis longifolia could serve as a dietary supplement to fight against tumor diseases.