The government through the Ministry of Industry is ready to fully support the development of essential oil production in Indonesia. This support was realized by holding the National Conference on Essential Oils (2022) in Semarang from 30 November to 3 December 2022. In this event, two students and one lecturer from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Brawijaya had the opportunity to present the results of their research .
UB delegation consists of Adi Kurnia Soesantyo, Jonathan Linggadiputra and Dr. Elvina Dhiaul Iftitah, M.Sc. explained about the biotransformation of compounds extracted from cloves, namely eugenol and isoeugenol into compounds that are more highly valuable, “This method is to convert clove essential oils into other volatile compounds with higher selling value and benefits, using the microbial Pseudomonas putida. By using the Microwave assisted biotransformation method, the synthetic process can be carried out in several minutes,” said Adi.
This method, added Adi, compares the number of final compounds with two different methods. “Bacteria are grown together with isoeugenol/eugenol substrate, and when using MAS, the bacteria and substrate are microwaved for 5, 15, 30 minutes, extracted each time. Meanwhile for conventional, bacteria and substrate were incubated for 24, 48 and 72 hours. After that, the results of the extract were in GC MS to find out what compounds were formed from the performance of bacterial enzymes,” he explained.
Following from KNMA, this team will develop their research to find bacterial enzymes that can work optimally in order to produce more yields and can be applied on an industrial scale. “Even though there are prospective results, our research is still continuing and will optimize the production process so that later it can be applied on an industrial scale,” said Adi Kurnia Soesantyo
In addition to presentations, KNMA also consists of a series of activities such as training and material for optimizing essential oil production such as anethol, cineol, and so on. This activity was held under the auspices of DAI (Indonesian Essential Council). To note, DAI is an umbrella organization for all stakeholders in agribusiness and agro-industry related to essential oils. DAI was founded during the KNMA in September 2006 in Solo, Central Java. (VQ/ Humas UB/ Trans. Iir)
