According to a team of researchers, eating a purple tomato may assist you in the fight against cancer.

Researchers at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, Great Britain, in association with other European centres, have created a genetically modified tomato that abounds in anthocyanin, a powerful antioxidant pigment that is usually found in blackberries and believed to have anti-cancer properties.

In the study, which was published in the Oct 26, 2008 edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology, several mice that were likely to develop cancer were given the purple vegetables. Researchers were surprised to find that the genetically modified tomatoes did have an effect on the small animals, as these had prolonged lives and were more prone to fight off cancer, they said.

The diet full of purple tomatoes made mice live about 40 days longer that those on a standard diet.

Led by Eugenio Butelli, researchers introduced two genes (Delila and Rosea1) from snapdragon flowers, annual flowers planted for winter colors, in the tomato genome.

The two genes were the cause of flower pigmentation and, when inserted in different plants, they ended up being the ideal mixture to produce anthocyanins, Butelli said.

The impact was “much bigger than we had expected," Cathie Martin of the John Innes Centre said in a press statement. It is extremely heartening “to believe that by changing diet, or specific components in the diet, you can improve health in animals and possibly humans.”