Oregon State University (OSU) researchers have been working on creating a purple tomato for several years and predict that one should be available in the local grocer's within two years. The eggplant purple tomato will have all the healthy tomato antioxidant lycopene goodness the red orbs offer now with the added benefit of blueberries nutrition in phytochemicals believed by some to offer cancer prevention functional food benefits.

According to OSU Professor Jim Myers, the new hybrid eggplant purple tomato will be the first true purple tomato. According to an OSU backgrounder on the purple tomatoes, hundreds of years ago, explorers discovered purple tomatoes in the wild, but those tomatoes never made it to the table because the fruit was small and some were poisonous. In the 1960s and 1970s, scientists collected seeds from these tomatoes and started to breed them with modern hybrids, making them safe to eat. They discovered that the new purple tomato, unlike the traditional red, contain high levels of anthocyanins, a chemical found in dark fruit pigments such as blueberries and grapes.

Some days, science is just plain fun.