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Proud news has returned from the world of education in Indonesia. A student of the Biology Study Program, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Padjadjaran University, Riska Kurniawati won an international award at the "International Fair of Youth Research and Education 2021" which was held virtually by the Indonesia Scientific Society on August 21. At the event, Riska obtained a Diploma with the title "Excellent" for the proposed research project. The research project is entitled "Eco-Detergent: Biodegradable Detergent from Corn Stover (Zea mays L.) and Lerak Fruit (Sapindus rarak DC) as a Water Friendly Solution".

In this scientific work, Riska and his supervisor, Dr. Budi Irawan developed an environmentally friendly detergent that is biodegradable from a combination of corn stover and lerak fruit. The development of this research was carried out to replace the use of chemical detergents for daily life. Based on the initial review, chemical detergents are one of the agents that can pollute water sustainability. The chemical content of detergents can cause poisoning and death of living organisms in the water, causing eutrophication events so as to reduce water quality levels. In addition, the water contaminated with detergent will be dangerous if used for the benefit of human life. Furthermore, Riska also explained that the combination of corn stover and lerak fruit containing saponins as surfactant agents can be used as a natural cleanser and can be degraded. The research method used is extraction to produce liquid components, foam test, foam stability test, and acidity test. From the tests carried out, the saponins content in the lerak fruit was 28% with the highest foam height of 2.7 cm in the test tube. The acidity level in the lerak solution is 5, while the acidity level in the lerak foam is 6 and the corn stover foam is 5.  These results indicate that liquid detergent from corn stover and lerak fruit can be used as an environmentally friendly product and has the potential to become a biodegradable detergent in the future.

The International Fair of Youth Research and Education 2021 is an international scientific competition which is participated by professional researchers, undergraduate students, and high school students from all over the world. Each participant who is selected has the opportunity to present his/her research before the panelists. Each presenter is assessed based on three predicates, namely “Excellent”, “Very Good”, and “Good Research Project”. This year, the 2021 event was attended by 36 selected teams to present their research projects. Riska had the opportunity to be a presenter with 15 other presenters from Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, Nepal, and Iraq. Meanwhile, the panelist team that attended consisted of 23 people from academia.