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.