Five students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA) Universitas Brawijaya (UB) Putri Ayu M, Nur Khasanah, Annindea Erza N, Dzurrotin Qurrota A, and Dita Rahmaningtyas under the guidance of Zubaidah Ningsih AS, S.Si., M.Phil., Ph.D. made an anti-acne cream combined with basic ingredients of durian rind waste.
“Anti-acne cream based on durian rind waste is considered more effective with an inhibitory strength of 18.1 mm compared to products on the market that contain tea tree oil with an inhibitory strength of 15.8 mm. Besides being supported by high inhibitory abilities, durian rind has antibacterial compounds such as flavonoids, saponins, tannins, terpenoids, and alkaloids,” said Nur Khasanah.
The most common acne treatments are medications that are rubbed to the skin (topical treatment) and medications that are administered as a drug (systemic treatment).
The topically treatment given to the skin has a higher effectiveness than treatment given orally since it can cause antibiotic resistance in the body. Hence to support topical treatment, an anti-acne cream was made through a technology called nano-emulsion.
“Nano-emulsion technology which consists of oil and water phases with droplet size <200 nm and a large surface area can provide a hydration effect so that increasing skin permeability in drug penetration and reduce the risk of acne inflammation. A technique that supports this nano-emulsion technology is the micro fluidization technique. This technique was chosen because it can work without increasing the system temperature and the size of nano-emulsion droplet can be controlled so that an anti-acne cream with better penetration power can be produced,” said Putri Ayu.
The process of making durian rind cream, first of all, the durian rind is cleaned first, the rind is sliced thinly, then oven is done at 60°C for 2×24 hours, then weighed and refined using a blender and then sieved.
After that, the extraction was carried out by maceration and then the solvent was separated using a rotary evaporator to obtain durian rind extract.
“Based on the bacterial tests that have been carried out, it was concluded that the micro fluidization technique can affect the particle size so that a smaller particle size is obtained and it is easier for the nano-emulsion gel to enter the bacterial cell so that a wider inhibitory power is obtained. It is hoped that this anti-acne cream can help the problems of acne sufferers,” added Putri. (*/Humas UB/ Trans. Iir).
