UNAIR NEWS – Five students of the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Universitas Airlangga  have extracted the eugenol of basil leaves ( Ocimum citriodorum ) to drug the tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ). The benefits, the extract can be an environmentally friendly anesthesia.

The five students who have made the innovation are Nila Dian Margareta, Masfiatus Sholikhah, Kartika Yulita Damayanti, Arinda Fadilah Anggi, and Tenry Nesya Almira Hartono.

They wrote the idea into a proposal for Exacta Research Student Creativity Program (PKM-PE) entitled “Eugenol Extraction on Basil Leaves ( Ocimum citriodorum ) as Environmentally Friendly Nile Tilapia Anesthesia (Eksis Tenar).

“The main composition in this essential oil is eugenol. Basil leaves contain high eugenol of 61.2 percent as antibacterial and other phenolic components such as eugenol and carvacrol, “said Nila.

Nila said that generally natural anesthetic materials are organic chemicals secondary metabolite products of saponins and rotenone compounds. This time, she and her team under the guidance of Dr. Laksmi Sulmartiwi, S.Pi, MP, is examining the concentration of eugenol extract of essential oil as anesthesia material in nile tilapia seeds.

In the research, she used descriptive statistical test, homogenity, anova, post hoc test, and homogenous. Based on the results of the tests they have done, the concentration of essential oils of basil leaves given as anesthesia has a significant effect on the mortality of nile tilapia seeds.

“Based on homogeneous test, the best concentration is obtained by dosage of essential oil of basil leaves 25ppt and 50ppt,” explained Nila.

Editor: Defrina Sukma S