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ABSTRACTTomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most widely consumed vegetables in the World. It belongs to the Solanaceae family and has a very great intraspecific diversity. Characterization is necessary for understanding the diversity among plants. Morphological characterization, phytochemical and proximate characterization, and microbial analysis were done on 2 local and 2 improved accessions of Solanum lycopersicum L. The two local accessions, BNL and EKL, were obtained from the Edaiken market Benin City while the improved accessions, IMPA and IMPB were obtained from Nigerian Institute of Horticultural Research (NIHORT), Ibadan. The accessions were grown on an open field in the Botanical Garden of the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, University of Benin. Morphological characterization was done for 32 characters using the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) descriptors for S. lycopersicum. Phtyochemical and proximate analyses were done using the method of the Association of Analytical Chemists. The serial dilution method was used for microbial analysis. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) done indicates that the characters vine length, fruit weight, ribbing at calyx end, plant size, leaf attitude, fruit size and fruit shape contributed most to the variation among the four accessions. Variation was also observed among the four accessions for phytochemicals and proximate value. Aspergillus sp, Penicillium sp, Saccharomyces sp, Pestalucia sp and Mucor sp were associated with the ripe and unripe fruits of the accessions. The study indicates that the two local accessions have good fruit quality and yield attributes.
