UNAIR NEWS – The Covid-19 pandemic does not dampen the students’ enthusiasm of Universitas Airlangga to make achievements. The enthusiasm led two students of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FKH) Universitas Airlangga to win 1st place in the Prevention Category – Idea Competition “Innovation for Infectious Disease” held by the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga.
The students are Rindi Ani Laksita Sari (FKH Class of 2019) and Lanang Nugroho Utomo (FKH Class of 2019). In the competition, Rindi and Lanang presented ‘El-Kimour Innovation of Electric Liquid Vaporizer from Lime Berry (Triphasia trifolia) Extracts as Culex quinquefasciatus Repellent.’
When interviewed by the UNAIR NEWS team on August 25, 2021, Rindi said they wanted to spend their free time and maximize their productivity by participating in the competition, especially in scientific competitions.
“Actually, we participated because we wanted to test our idea and write a paper based on our daily problems. Our paper theme was related to the available topics, and the competition was an international competition, so we challenged ourselves to write an English paper,” said Rindi.
The idea we raised, she continued, was motivated by the fact that in Indonesia Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) remains a significant public health problem. Efforts to eradicate LF in Indonesia have been carried out for a long time but have not been effective enough.
“One effective way to treat filariasis as an arthropod disease is to reduce the number of Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito bites at night. Synthetic insecticides and insect repellents generally contain pyrethroids which are 2250 times more harmful to insects than mammals. However, pyrethroids will cause health and environmental problems in the long term,” explained Rindi.
She emphasized that synthetic insect repellents are very dangerous and can cause respiratory diseases, eye irritation, nose and throat infections, coughs, weakness, heart disease, and asthma. From an environmental perspective, environmental pollution causes resistance.
“Plant products such as essential oils are an alternative approach that is environmentally friendly, safe for other living things. The complex chemical structure of natural ingredients limits the development of resistance to target insects. The use of natural materials is considered more economical because of their abundant availability,” she said.
Triphasia trifolia (or commonly called lime berry), she explained, can be used as an insect repellent and natural insecticide. The active ingredients of lime berry include α-pinene, β-pinene, α-limonene, p-cymene, myrcene, terpinene, sabinene, and hexadecanoic acid which can be used as Culex quinquefasciatus repellent compound.
“Based on various considerations, lime berry essential oil will be presented as an Electric Liquid Vaporizer. It was chosen because it is practical, durable, automatic (auto-spray for a certain period of time), and effective at night,” said Rindi.
Rindi explained that the mechanism is to reject the presence of mosquitoes because of the strong odor of the extract preparation. If the mosquito is exposed to this molecule, it inhibits the synthesis of the cholinesterase enzyme so that there is no degradation of acetylcholine (ACh). The effect of ACh will be constant. This transmission will cause the mosquito’s respiratory muscles to contract, resulting in interference with its respiratory process. Therefore, mosquitoes tend to avoid the monoterpene group.
For better results, she said, the electrical efficiency of the El-Kimour device must be improved through laboratory experiments.
“The use of natural insect repellents from lime berry in Indonesia has not been widely developed. Thus, innovations based on Triphasia trifolia extract are very likely to be developed in Indonesia. This innovation is expected to be an effective, safe, and affordable solution to accelerate the eradication of filariasis in Indonesia by reducing cases of Culex quinquefasciatus vector bites,” she concluded. (*).
Author: Muhammad Suryadiningrat
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
