UMM Students Create Antibacterial from Wuluh Starfruit Leaves

Hanifa who researches Wuluh Starfruit for Antibacterial. (Photo: Istimewah)

University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) always encourages its students to do research and research. The same thing was also carried out by one of the Research-Student Creativity Program (PKM-RE) teams. They succeeded in researching and creating a potent antibacterial agent for chicken meat. The PKM with the title "Starfruit Leaf Extract as Antibacterial Against Salmonella Typhi in Chicken Meat" has passed the Directorate General of Higher Education (Dikti).

As the head of the group, Hanifa Adani explained that the idea arose from her reading of previous journals that researched antibacterials. In addition, according to him, most of the chickens in the market and slaughterhouses still contain Salmonella. Though these substances have a terrible impact on health if consumed. These two things finally moved the team to implement research-based PKM.

"Previously, we have read various journals that discuss antibacterial. We found that there is a lot of meat circulating that still contains harmful substances if eaten by humans. One of the dangerous substances is Salmonella," she said

Hanifa, her nickname, explained that they found the presence of flavonoids in the leaves of star fruit during the research process. This substance has a function to maintain the health of the food content and prevent the development of lousy salmonella substances in chicken meat. This makes starfruit leaves a source of antibacterial.

"The starfruit leaves which contain flavonoids make them a source of antibacterial which functions to ward off salmonella substances in chicken meat," she added.

The antibacterial manufacturing process itself takes three to four weeks. Where the manufacture must go through the extraction process, the starfruit leaves are cut into pieces, dried, then crushed until smooth. After that, the solvent was added and evaporated to get a thick extract. The wide section is what can be used as an antibacterial. "We just put in the chicken meat and soak it together with the antibacterial," she said.

Who conducted this research from last May to July. Although PPKM hampered the study, the group looked for alternatives by holding online meetings. The team consisted of Hanifa Adina, Keiko Maryati Putri, Nadhifatul Reina, and Nadya Sinta. The end of this PKM project is submitting journals and patenting them in Intellectual Property Rights (HaKI).

The student born in Tulungagung hopes that the results of this research and research related to antibacterials can provide new insights for the community. In addition, it can be a product to maintain the content of chicken meat and can be marketed commercially in the future. "We certainly hope that this research will be able to provide new knowledge to the public regarding antibacterials. Hopefully, it can be immediately produced and marketed to the wider community so that others can immediately feel the benefits," she concluded. (haq/wil)