Universitas Muhammadiyah Riau (UMRI) Students took advantage of the pineapple peels to be antiseptic paper soap to prevent the spread of COVID-19. UMRI students, namely Indah Sukma Adina, Citra Novita, and Akmal Arshad Shidiq are the students of Industrial Engineering, the Faculty of Engineering, under the supervision of Denny Astrie Anggraini, MT. They developed the innovation through the Student Creativity Program of Entrepreneurs (PKM-K).

As reported from the official UMRI site, Denny Astrie explained about the product. The product was in paper sheets as the hand soap. It was classified as ergonomic because it was practical and easy to bring in everywhere. “The pineapple potency as a processed food was extensive in Kualu. Therefore, it would be regrettable if the pineapple peels just became a useless waste,” she said last Thursday (14/10).

One of the innovation backgrounds, one of them, was the survey result as in 8 out of 10 people selected the hand sanitizer instead of antiseptic liquid soap. Washing hands with soap is better than having hand sanitizer. Therefore, the product was innovative to answer that because pineapple peels have bromelain enzymes as antiseptic. “The liquid soap was not efficient enough because it was easy to spill and difficult to bring, so we created the innovation to change in a light sheet of paper,” she said.

The product called Paper Soap Kulna was hoped might help the community have a healthy and clean life in the pandemic. The product also became PKM-K of UMRI students who joined the 34th PIMNAS in Medan, North Sumatra. [] UMRI / Diktilitbang