Vitamin D-3 and its metabolites in the tomato plant

The tomato plant has been demonstrated to have vitamin D-like activity. The activity was present in the leaves but not in the fruit of the plant. The chloroform extract of the leaves (containing free vitamin D and its metabolites) and the ethanol extract of the residue (containing the glycosidic forms) were partially purified by column chromatography. The fractions corresponding to authentic vitamin D-3, 25-hydroxy vitamin D-3 and 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D-3 were tested for biological activity and analysed by HPLC. The results indicate that the plant contains vitamin D-3, 25-hydroxy vitamin D-3 and 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D-3 and their glycosidic forms. Free vitamin D-3 was observed to be the major active principle and the concentration of the free forms of the metabolites was higher than the corresponding glycosides.