Effects of Different Systemic Insecticides in Carotenoid Content, Antibacterial Activity and Morphological Characteristics of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum var Diamante)

This study aimed to determine the effects of different systemic insecticides in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum var. Diamante). The study also assessed different systemic insecticides used in other plants in their effectiveness and suitability to tomato by evaluating the carotenoid content and antibacterial activity of each insecticide. Morphological characteristics such as the weight, the number and the circumference of tomato fruits and the height of the plant were also observed. Moreover, the cost effectiveness was computed. Treatments were designated as follows: Treatment 1- plants sprayed with active ingredient (a.i.) cartap hydrochloride; Treatment 2 - plants sprayed with a.i. indoxacarb; Treatment 3- plants sprayed with a.i. chlorantraniliprole and thiamethoxam; Treatment 4 - plants sprayed with a.i. dinotefuran (positive control); and Treatment 5 - no insecticide applied. The experimental design used was Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The first three systemic insecticides with such active ingredient were not yet registered for tomato plant. Statistical analyses show that there were no significant differences among the weight, the number and the circumference of tomato fruits and the height of the plant for each treatment. Results showed that treatments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 extracts have 49.74, 44.16, 48.19, 52.57 and 50.60 μg/g of total carotenoids (TC), respectively. Statistical analysis shows that there no significant differences in the TC content of each treatment. The antibacterial activity of each plant sample showed no significant differences among treatments. Thin layer chromatographic analysis revealed that there were equal numbers of spots for all the plant samples.The study concluded that systemic insecticide with a.i. cartap hydrochloride be introduced to the farmers as insecticide for tomato plant since it shows comparable effect with the registered insecticide (T4) based on the morphological characteristics, total carotenoid content, antibacterial activity and found to be the most cost-effective.