The Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Brawijaya (FK-UB) Team won a silver medal at Thailand Inventors’ Day 2025 organized by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), at Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Center: BITEC, Bang Na, Bangkok, Thailand, 1-6 February 2025.
They are Rossi Imam Prasojo, Richard Eleazar Wihardjo, Thierry Hegan Ho, Nadia Edita Maheswari, Suryana Anabel, Crie Aliya Paramitha Diansari, and Raina Fauza Sabila, from the Medical Study Program batch of 2024.
This victory was achieved through the innovation of Slay Spray (Chrysanthemum and Betel Spray), a biospray that can become a scabies treatment by killing the Sarcoptes scabeiei mites that cause scabies and reducing inflammation caused by scabies.
“Our idea started from the desire to create an alternative product for scabies treatment using organic ingredients at an affordable price. We found that chrysanthemum flowers have potential as scabies mite exterminators, while betel leaves have anti-inflammatory properties. Therefore, we extracted both ingredients to obtain the active compounds needed,” explained Rossi Imam Prasojo as Team Leader.
After ensuring the effectiveness and safety of the product, the team, guided by lecturer Dr. Aulia Rahmi Pawestri, Ph.D. (Trop.Med.) conducted basic tests including in silico tests, phytochemical tests, and antimicrobial tests that proved the product had the potential to kill scabies mites. This is because the pyrethrum content of Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium flowers has a similar mechanism of action to the previous conventional scabies ointment, namely permethrin.
The competition brought together 690 teams from 22 participating countries, including South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, United Kingdom, Romania, Poland, Iran, Japan, China, Vietnam, Russia, Philippines, Macao, Laos, Hong Kong, India, Canada, Germany, Morocco, Poland, and Chinese Taipei.
Rossi and his team successfully passed various stages including paper selection, video presentations, and posters on the innovations developed, as well as the final presentation, until finally winning the Silver Medal.
This competition was held in the form of an exhibition and assessment. The team gave a presentation introducing the product so that the objectives and advantages of the product could be easily understood by the judging jury and participants who visited the booth.
“As medical students, this research competition is an extraordinary and insightful new experience for us. We hope that what we develop can be perfected in the future until it is mass-produced for the advancement of the medical health field. Through the products we develop, we hope that we can become doctors who are responsible for medical science and are useful for the Indonesian people in the future,” concluded Rossi. [Irene/ UB PR/ Trans. Iir]
