Carrabiitol Mediated Qualitative Enhancement of Tomato Fruit Under Abiotic Stress Conditions

The increasing commoditization of traditional biostimulants has driven the need for more precise and targeted solutions in climate change scenarios. Single Biostimulant Molecules (SBM) represent a novel approach that departs from conventional multi-compound formulations, which often contain undefined mixtures of bioactive components, triggering multiple responses. Instead, SBMs focus on a specific bioactive molecule with a defined mode of action, ensuring greater consistency and predictability in plant responses under field conditions. This study evaluated Carrabiitol®, an oligosaccharide polyol single biostimulant molecule, for alleviating stress response in tomato (<i>Solanum lycopersicum</i> cv. ‘Arka Rakshak’). Plants were subjected to water deficit, high temperature, and salinity stress during the flowering stages. Treatment involved seed priming and application of Carrabiitol® (3ml/L) on foliage during vegetative and pre-flowering stages. Plants were evaluated for their Plant height, Number of fruits per plant, Total Soluble sugars, Total Acidity, Lycopene content, Carotenoids content and fruit yield. Experiments were arranged in a complete block randomized design with four replications. Results showed recovery in plant height and marketable yield with significant improvement in the tomato lycopene content that increased by more than 76% under water deficit stress and 164% under salinity stress when treated with Carrabiitol® @ 3ml/L (T6) compared to untreated plants (p ≤ 0.05). Total carotenoids improved by up to 89% (p ≤ 0.05). Overall, study illustrated that application of Single Biostimulant Molecule (SBM), Carrabiitol® was effective in improving the qualitative trait of tomatoes by alleviating applied abiotic stresses.