Effect of Various Drying Methods Against Biopesticide Product from Noni Leaves Extraction

Abstract

The frequent use of synthetic pesticides can negatively affect the environment due to the produced residues that are difficult to decompose. Biopesticide can be an alternative material to the use of chemical pesticides as it is easy to decompose in nature. The main raw materials for biopesticides are plants containing active compounds that can be toxic to pests, for example, Noni leaves. Noni leaves can be used as an feedstock for biopesticides due to their content of alkaloid compounds that can kill pests. One of the most important processes in manufacturing biopesticide is drying the raw material which aims to remove the water content as the high water content will interfere with the extraction process. This study aims to compare the content of noni leaves dried using a solar dryer and oven. As solar dryer has fluctuating heating, it is important to review the quality of the biopesticide produced. The results of testing the quality of biopesticide between the use of the solar dryer and the oven using the GCMS analysis showed that the biopesticide content was not too much different. However, the biopesticides produced by solar dryer drying had the highest contents of amine group compounds, namely Ethylhydrazine, while the biopesticides produced by oven had the highest content of carboxylic acid and ester group compounds.