UNAIR NEWS – Some Faculty of Public Health’s students have developed their research soft-skills through Jambi University Youth Idea Competition 2022. This activity facilitates students to produce mind-blowing findings in the health sector.
The Phoenix Airlangga team consists of Rina Pertiwi, Afan Alfayad, Syahrul Ramadhan, Asrfoul, and Putri Nur Aini. This team won Second Place the competition on Thursday, November 24, 2022.
“Our findings are motivated by the increasing plastic straw waste in Indonesia. In addition, the abundant potential of dragon fruit in Indonesia is the main substance in the findings,” said Syahrul Ramadhan, one of the team members.
The seventh-semester student added, “The program aims to make inventions or products that are environmentally friendly by reducing plastic straw waste and dragon fruit peel waste. In addition, this product also aims to improve people’s immunity through the phenol content found in the dragon fruit skin.
To UNAIR NEWS, the student from Majalengka said that the research idea of ​​SERALI (Eco-Friendly Straws) has given many advantages including reducing plastic straw waste, containing anthocyanins, vitamin C, betalain, phenols, and flavonoids which contribute to increasing the body’s immunity, and using raw materials available, and supporting the sustainable development goal 13 program.
The methods for making eco-friendly straws include:
- Production of dragon fruit peel extract as the main raw material. Dragon fruit peel is cleaned, then mashed, strained, and taken for the extract.
- After the extraction, the second process is to cook the dragon fruit peel extract with tapioca flour while stirring until it forms lumps. In this process, a small fire is used. Tapioca flour derived from cassava starch contains high amylopectin, so when it is cooked, it has a chewy and sticky texture
- After the cooking process, the lump is flattened on plastic with the right thickness.
- After that, the sheets are printed using aluminum pipes, and then the drying process is carried out. This drying process uses direct sunlight for one day.
- For the last process, the dried straw is dipped in beeswax liquid. This liquid beeswax contains propolis which can dry out and harden so that the straw will be more resistant to water.
“We hope that through these findings, we can contribute to reducing the waste of plastic straws and dragon fruit peels and maintaining environmental balance and health. So that in the future, we can create a better world for society and future generations,” said Syahrul in the end. (*)
Author: Afan Alfayad
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
