Indonesian Students Invent Kit to Detect Cyanide In Food

Malang (Antara Bali) - Indonesian students from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the Brawijaya University (Unibraw) have invented a quantitative analytical tool, called Cyanide Test Kit, for detecting cyanide level in foods.

"Cyanide is a toxic compound that can inhibit the circulation of oxygen in the body. This compound can cause death in humans, if consumed in excess of the maximum allowable limit, within 15 minutes," a member of the research team, Luluil Maknun, said here on Monday.

She said the Indonesian Food and Drug Supervisory Agency in 2006 had established that no more than 1 mg/kg of body weight cyanide in the body can be allowed.

Cyanide can be found in many foods, especially in cassava, bamboo shoot, yam and surly.

So far, the cyanide analysis in Indonesia was being carried out using spectrophotometry, titrimetry, and argentometry, all involving imported kits.

Analysis with the help of Cyanide Test Kit is done by dissolving a sample along with a reagent to form a red solution. The intensity of the red color is then matched with a color comparator to indicate the concentration of cyanide in the sample.

The Cyanide Test Kits are sold at Rp 20 thousand and each kit can be used 60 times. The sensitivity of this kit is quite high because it is capable of detecting cyanide levels as low as 0.04 ppm.

Within about five minutes, this tool is able to detect the cyanide content in a sample. This tool can do rapid analysis in the field with a required sample mass of approximately 0.1 grams.
(WDY)