Dr rer nat Fredy Kurniawan SSi MSi

Kampus ITS, ITS News – As a tropical country, Indonesia is known by plants diversity. Responding to this, lecturer of the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) Dr. rer nat Fredy Kurniawan SSi MSi recently examined the extract of Sambiloto plant as anti-ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

According to Fredy, the potential of medicinal plants has been widely developed in Indonesia, especially in the pharmaceutical field. “Here, we are trying to dig deeper into other potentials that have never been developed in previous studies, the important thing is that this plant is easy to be cultivated in Indonesia,” explained the Head of the Chemistry Departement, Faculty of Science and Data Analytics.

He also said, the utilization and development of medicinal plants in this study were expected to increase the economic value of the country’s natural assets. The plant , which has the Latin name Andrographis paniculata L. Ness,  is one of the types of medicinal plants that has priority to be developed in Indonesia.

The medicinal plants Andrographis paniculata processing in the study  

He also added, this plant has a unique active compound known as “King Bitter”. The compound is the primary bioactive compound of Andrographolide, which is a group of terpenoid compounds, especially diterpene lactone.

This study is helped by students team. Furthermore, the analytical method uses Ultraviolet spectrophotometry and fluorescent spectrophotometry. While the characterization of extraction results methods uses the infrared spectrometry method or Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectrophotometer (FTIR) and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometer chromatography(LCMS/MS).

One of the research proceses of Sumbolito as anti-ultraviolet radiation

“Secara prinsip, pertama tanaman obat sambiloto diambil bagian daunnya kemudian dipreparasi dan dilakukan proses maserasi selama beberapa waktu, kemudian dilakukan karakterisasi dan analisis terhadap hasil ekstraksi tanaman obat sambiloto, terakhir adalah modifikasi dan aplikasi ekstrak tanaman tersebut sebagai UV Protector,” urainya.”In principle, the first part of the medicinal plant is taken from the leaves. Then, the leaves is prepared and maceration is carried out for some time. After that, the study examines the characterization and analysis of the extraction of medicinal plants. The last is the modification and application of the plant extract as UV Protector,” he explained.

Fredy menambahkan, hasil akhir dari penelitiannya tersebut adalah berupa tabir surya yang merupakan salah satu jenis produk kosmetik yang banyak dibutuhkan. Yakni, tabir surya yang mengandung ekstrak tanaman sambiloto dengan nilai Sun Protection Factor (SPF) tertentu.

Fredy added, the end result of his research was in the form of sunblock with certain Sun Protection Factor (SPF) values which is one type of cosmetic product that is much needed.

Sunblock that produced from the research conducted by Dr. Nat Nat Fredy Kurniawan SSi MSi with his team

Ia juga mengakui, selama proses penelitian tentunya ada kendala yang dihadapi. Salah satu contohnya adalah dikarenakan sampelnya berupa bahan alami, sehingga komponen (matriks) yang terkandung di dalamnya cukup kompleks. Fredy mengungkapkan bahwa penelitiannya saat ini sedang dalam proses publikasi ilmiah. Fredy also admitted, during the research process , there were some obstacles that he was faced. One of them because the sample is in the form of natural ingredients, so the components (matrices) contained  are quite complex. Fredy revealed that his research is currently in the process of scientific publication.

“Memang saat ini belum ada kerja sama dengan pihak ketiga, tetapi untuk ke depannya sudah ada rencana untuk bisa diproduksi massal,” ujarnya. Fredy berharap, penelitian ini nantinya dapat bermanfaat dan berdaya guna bagi masyarakat luas. “Currently, there is no cooperation with third parties, but in the future there are plans to be mass produced,” he said. Fredy hopes that this research will be useful  for the community.(meg/HUMAS ITS)