"Eel is a freshwater fish that is favored by the public as food because the meat is thick and tastes delicious. In addition, the protein content reaches 14 percent, so that it can accelerate wound healing," she said here on Wednesday.
She conveyed this in a scientific lecture, entitled Eel as a Health Supplement and Wound Medicine, during her inauguration as a permanent professor in Pharmacy at the Faculty of Pharmacy Unand.
In her speech, she mentioned several important amino acids needed in wound healing, including glutamine, arginine, cysteine, glycine and proline, which are used for skin-formation, collagen building and as an anti-inflammatory.
"Many of these amino acids are contained in eel extract," she said.
Eels also contain omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, which play an important role in healing wounds, repairing damaged tissue, and as an antithrombotic.
She added that eel extract is used to treat and close wounds and can be packaged in three forms, including gel, membrane and spray. All of these, she said, are ready to be produced and marketed.
Besides treating wounds, eels can also be a health supplement because of their high nutritional content.
"There are people who do not like to eat eel because it looks different from most fish. To overcome this, eels can be produced in capsules and tablets as health supplements," she said.
She said that eel packaged in capsules and tablets would be more practical and could be stored longer, so that people who did not like to eat eels would still be able to benefit from their nutritional content.
To process eels into capsules, eels must be made into flour by cleaning and removing the contents of its stomach.
Then, it must be put into a glass beaker and an autoclave, and sterilized for 15 minutes at a temperature of 121 degrees Celsius.
The eels are then dried in a vacuum oven at a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius and, after drying, the eels must be mashed and made into powder.
The eels are then packaged in a tablet machine, she said.
As a professor, Febriyenti has patented eel extract gel and eel extract spray.
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Translator: Katriana
Editor: Sri Haryati
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