COASTAL COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT IN PRODUCING

SARGASSUM SP. TOOTH PASTE TO INCREASE

THE INDEPENDENT ECONOMIC LEVEL


Afida Luthfi Yuvana
1106010811
Faculty of Dentistry
Universitas Indonesia



SUMMARY

Indonesia has a lot of natural resources, one of which is marine resource. In
fact, millions of Indonesian marine resources have not been utilized optimally, so
that those abundant wealth can not improve the welfare of its sorrounding
community. Most of coastal communities or fishermen communities tend to have
lower socio-economic level compared with others, which is characterised by low-
educated people, difficulties in accessing health services, and low-income level.
These problems are caused by the dependence of fishers to the raw materials of
the ocean, especially fishes.
One of potential marine resources is seaweed. Actually, there is found a
brown seaweed which is abundant in almost all of Indonesian seas, but has not
been used optimally, named Sargassum sp. Sargassum sp. is one of the genus of
brown algae (Phaeophyceae), classified in the largest genera in sargassaceae
family. There are 12 species of this seaweed identified in Indonesian seas.
Sargassum sp. contains sodium-alginate (Na-alginate), laminarine,
fucoidine, cellulose, mannitol, antioxidants (polyphenols), iron, iodine, vitamin C,
and minerals, such as Ca, K, Mg, Na, Fe, Cu, Zn, S, P, dan Mn. These contents
can give analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-bacterial effects that
are potential to be used for health, especially in oral health.
Effects produced from Sargassum sp. can be formulated into a tooth paste.
This seaweed tooth paste is potential to against the oral pathogen bacteria
effectively, against plaque accumulation and calculus development, against the
gum disease, and heal the lesions in oral mucose. Tooth paste is one of the basic
needs for every person to maintain the oral health. This product is also in line with
the urgency to combat the high prevalence of oral diseases in Indonesia,
evidenced by high index of DMF-T that reach score 4,6. This means that every
person in Indonesia has 4 to 5 damaged teeth.
Therefore, tooth paste which contains this seaweed is potential to produce
because of its usefulness for oral health and its abundant materials in Indonesia.
Sargassum sp. tooth paste production can be implemented as the independent
bussiness for coastal communities, by empowering fishermen in the seaweed
cultivation and their wives in the seaweed tooth paste production. The overview of
this programme implementations are; education in the enterpreneurship for
fishermen and their wives, education and training in the seaweed cultivation, and
training in toothpaste manufacturing and marketing. The last but not least, there
should be the education in using this seaweed tooth paste for every person in those
communities so that they can do the home care by using this tooth paste. This
tooth paste production has some advantages, such as provide extra income for the
fishermen, give additional skills for coastal communities to process and produce
something, increase the enterpreneurial skills, and also increase their oral health.
This empowerment programme needs coorporation and enthusiasm of the
various elements in this country, not only government, but also the commercial
company, social company, high educated and expert people, and all of the people
sorrounding. By increasing the income of fishermen community, this will
automatically reduce the hunger, increase the health and social level. This
empowerment programme can be implemented in every Indonesian coastal area to
eradicate the extreme poverty and hunger in the future.