VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A number of Padjadjaran University students are trying to help reduce a number of smokers who are addicted to smoking in Indonesia. The effort is in the form of candy innovations/lozenges. If smokers enjoy the candy, they can get rid of smoking addiction. The students are Rifky Adhia Pratama (Chemistry), Tiara Zahra Shafira (Accounting), Endang Juliansyah (Chemistry), Iis Kurniasih (Chemistry), and Kevin Reza Reynantha (Business Administration) as well as supervisor lecturer Rani Maharani, PhD. This team succeeded in making candy that contains cytisine, or a natural compound that can reduce nicotine addiction in smokers. According to Rifky, the innovation is based on the results of the team's search which found that Indonesia's smoking prevalence rate ranks seventh in the world with a smoking rate of 39.90 percent. The team is also trying to find a solution to reduce the death rate due to smoking in Indonesia. One of them is by looking for natural compounds that can reduce nicotine addiction in the brain. From the search results, it was found that the natural compound cytisine has the ability to bioactivate to prevent the binding of nicotine to receptors in the brain.

Rifky explained that nicotine is an additive that is able to bind to receptors in the brain. The impact of the binding of nicotine to the receptor is to cause an opiate effect. Based on the results of existing studies, cytisine has the ability to bind to receptors in the brain seven times stronger than nicotine. Thus, there is more cytisine bound in the brain than nicotine; it will be able to reduce the effects of smoking addiction in smokers. Cytisine compound itself is already popular in European continent as a therapy to reduce cigarette addiction. In fact, this compound has been organically synthesized and widely traded in tablet form. Unfortunately, it is still not popular in Indonesia. Rifky further explained that the team looked for natural ingredients containing cytisine compounds. Assisted by a supervisor, the team found research results that cytisine extract could be obtained from the genus Laburnum or golden chain tree in sufficient quantities.

Then, the team had the idea to formulate the cytisine into candy or lozenges. The selection of lozenges was based on the results of a study describing the side effects of cytisine tablets sold in Europe. The effects felt by consumers when taking these tablets are nausea and the feeling of wanting to vomit. Rifky also pointed out that the team chose the type of lozenges with a chewy texture (chiwi) rather than a solid crystal texture. To avoid nausea, the team also combined it with fruit flavors. It aims to increase sensation in the mouth, so the smokers can have a psychological alternative in the mouth that is able to divert activity in the mouth from the desire to smoke. The lozenges product is given the name "Kokro'' which is a syllable reversal of the morpheme “Rokok” or in English means "cigarette". Rifky explained that changing the syllables in cigarettes to "Kokro" has the hope that this product will be able to restore human health to how it used to be before smoking addiction. The cytisine content in Kokro is adjusted to the content in cytisine tablets sold in Europe, which is 1.5 milligrams. Therefore, the consumption of "Kokro" has its own dose. In addition, Kokro can also be consumed by non-smokers or passive smokers, mainly to avoid nicotine in the body. The "Kokro" product was developed as a form of implementation of the Student Creativity Program. This product was successfully funded by the Directorate General of Higher Education for the category of Student Creativity Program - Entrepreneurship. The plan for candy "Kokro" will be launched in early August.