Cigarette Butts as Insecticide Ingredients for Vegetable Plants

5
Mar
2015
Cigarette Butts as Insecticide Ingredients for Vegetable Plants

Cigarette butts litter can contaminate soil and water and kills microorganism because of its toxicating substances. However, the nicotin contained inside the remaining tobacco can be used as Insecticide for Vegetables.

Four students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences conducted a research to compare the effectiveness of cigarette butt and papaya leaf extract as insecticide for vegetables. They are Martha Lina, Nrangwesthi Widyaningrum, Addinunnisa Auliya Ipaulle, Maria Olivia Ero B, and Martiyah.

Martha explained that the research has several procedures. First, prepare cabbage and Plutella xylostella pests. Second, prepare papaya leaf extract and cigarette butt as insecticide for vegetables. Third, spray such insecticide to the cabbage for 1.5 months. Last, observe the pest intensity and mortality before and after the treatment.

This research shows that cigarette butt extract contributed to 100% mortality of 21 Plutella Xylostella for 3 days, whereas papaya leaf extract contributed to 65% mortality of 14 Plutella Xylostella for 5 days. The pest has 6 days cycle. Therefore, the living pests after the treatment will grow into a moth.

“On the seventh day, the cigarette butt extract changed the cauliflower morphologically which led into decayed cauliflower with odor, whereas the papaya leaf extract decayed the cauliflower with its visible morphology,” she said.

It was caused by Alkaloid compound from nicotine tobacco leaf bounded with malic acid and citric acid. Tobacco contains of Amine, Pyrolle, Pidirin, Nornikotin Alkaloid and Anabasine. In addition, it contains 0.3% to 5% nicotine which can be used as insecticide. Likewise, papaya leaf contains of alkaloid, saponin, flavonoid and polifenol which is effective to control caterpillar and pest.

“The effectiveness of cigarette butt and papaya leaf extracts can be distinguished from Plutella Xylostella mortality. It was found that cigarette butt is more effective than papaya leaf as insecticide for vegetables,” she closed. (Witono N)

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