SDCA Student Research Journal

Abstract

Philippines is one of the countries that are prone to diseases caused by mosquitoes. In fact, many Filipinos’ death has been caused by diseases like “Dengue” and “Malaria”. The researchers have thought of a way where we would not spend that much money in making other commercialized mosquito repellents and take the risk of destroying our environment and causing the increasing of pollution in the country. The researchers thought that a great component in making these mosquito repellents should be one of the wastes that we have not yet acknowledged. When we eat bananas, we usually just end up throwing the peels away after eating. But the researchers want to know if banana peels can be a component in making a mosquito repellent. Through this, they can hit ‘two birds with one stone’ by making a mosquito repellent out of something that is one of the wastes in our country. For the researchers to make a banana mosquito repellent, they will first collect the banana peels and dry them. After drying, they will then extract the essential oils from the banana peels using various ways such as using a blender, mortar and pestle, and ethanol. Through this, they can extract the essential oils and find out if banana mosquito repellent is effective and can be a substitute for commercialized mosquito repellent, and if banana peels extract can work with other mosquito-repelling plants in repelling mosquitoes. The researchers found out that the banana mosquito repellent is actually an effective substitute to commercialized mosquito repellents and that they can combine it with other mosquito-repelling plants in making mosquito repellents to enhance its effectivity. If given more time, the researchers would effectively explore other ways in researching this study.

Keywords: Banana peels; Chemical components; Mosquito repellent; Dengue; Malaria.