Telang flower is one of edible flower which is currently much sought by the public because of its nutrition. The content of Telang flowers which is beneficial for health is anthocyanins which are antioxidants, these substances can increase the body’s resistance to various types of diseases.
In general, telang flowers are consumed as a drink like tea and some are processed into food coloring. Both food and drink produced from telang flowers will be blue, a unique color that is rarely found in common foods.
Telang flowers can be obtained by buying in various marketplaces, one of the SMEs that selling telang flowers is SME Inti Alam Anugerah.
This SME develops telang flowers from upstream to downstream. The main product of this SME is dried telang flower and it is processed into several derivative products.
The dried telang flowers harvested from farmers’ gardens are dried manually using solar energy. This process usually takes 2 to 3 days to get good quality dried telang flowers.
However, in rainy season the farmers are no longer able to produce dried telang flowers so that the flowers are not harvested and are left without being harvested.
Committed to reduce farmers’ losses during the rainy season, five UB students collaborate to develop telang flower drying machines.
Delia Dwi Novrianti and Taufik Hidayat Soesilo from the Faculty of Engineering UB together with their three friends Firdausi, Fikriya Novita, and Johan developed this tool under the guidance of Dr. Budi Waluyo, SP., MP.
The machine will has 2 chambers; heating and cooling chamber. Modification of this chamber will serve to maintain the quality of existing anthocyanin on telang flowers.
The dryer that being developed is also equipped with a sensor that is integrated with the internet.
“We use internet of things so that farmers can control the condition of the machine remotely,” explained Delia, representing the team.
This idea has received financial assistance from the Ministry of Education and Culture in the Student Creativity Program (PKM) in the field of Technology Application and will compete to represent UB in PIMNAS XXXIII next November. (mic)
