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| Floor Cleaning Products initiated by UMM CoE students (Photo: Special) |
One of the efforts to reduce organic waste is to turn things considered useless into useful products. This was also done by the Center of Excellence (CoE) students in Essential Oil, University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM). They utilize lemongrass leaves to make a floor-cleaning product.
"Usually, we only use the stem for cooking or medicinal purposes, while the leaves are discarded. This time, CoE students from the forestry program successfully turned them into floor cleaners," said Galit Gatut Prakosa, S.Hut., M.Sc., Head of the Forestry Study Program at UMM..
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Galit, as he is commonly known, mentioned that the product originated from the CoE's professional internship program. The students were required to intern at various seed supply and harvest buyer companies. For example, companies supplying lemongrass were located in Blora, and distillation machines were in Yogyakarta. They were inspired when they saw a significant amount of lemongrass leaves being discarded, realizing their potential to be turned into an interesting product..
The manufacturing process involves several stages. Lemongrass leaves are distilled and mixed with other substances such as biosoft 0.5%, EDTA, Citronella Oil, NP10 0.8%, BKC 0.5%, and Aquadest. The mixture is then boiled until evaporation occurs. The resulting vapor is cooled to produce the liquid.
"The production of lemongrass leaf carbolic has obtained approval from the Domestic Health Supplies (PKD), processed simultaneously with the product itself. The approval process took place around March last year and has now been officially declared safe," he explained.
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Galit also emphasized that the carbolic product is safe for families with toddlers, considering its natural lemongrass ingredient. Additionally, its natural fragrance is considered an advantage.
"Since we have obtained permission from PKD, we have marketed it to several places. Starting with the area near the campus and wearing it to the community," he explained.
The university actively encourages innovation by motivating students to explore various avenues and create beneficial products. Previously, some students successfully produced natural oils for relaxation. (*ri/wil/fajr)
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