Myrmecodia pendans is a plant commonly used an alternative medicine material because it contains in flavonoid, tannin, tocopherol, and multi mineral. The plant is utilized as a drug of various diseases such as breathlessness, TBC cough, high blood pressure, rheumatic, gout, heart disorders, and cancer. However, cultivation of Myrmecodia pendans has a lot of constraints as ants (Iridomyrmex cordatus) eat seeds of the Myrmecodia pendans and dissimilar nature of saplings to the parents will reduce quality of the Myrmecodia pendans as a raw material of a drug.

Recognizing the significance of the Myrmecodia pendans, students of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta proposed a research entitled “Pepusumepe Tasase In Vitro: Pemanfaatan Pumpkins dalam Substitusi Medium Perbanyakan Tanaman Sarang Semut secara In Vitro” (“Pepusumepe Tasase In Vitro: Utilization of Pumpkins in Medium Substitution of Myrmecodia pendans Cultivation through In Vitro”) to Program Kreativitas Mahasiswa-Penelitian (PKM-P).

An in vitro cultivation technique aims to produce quality Myrmecodia pendans. “The in vitro cultivation uses parts of a plant such as a cell, issue, leaf, root segment, stem semen, embryo, and other parts. Afterwards, they are put on a cultivation bottle with media of gels and aseptic condition. The technique can augment plants fast but remain maintaining uniformity of genes and preserving germplasm,” explained Amira Firza, a team member of the PKM-P as well as a student of Department of Agrotechnology of batch 2015, in an interview on Saturday (14/7).

In vitro cultivation employing a medium of synthetic chemicals costs expensively. The PKM-team changed the medium into pumpkins. “The pumpkins can function as a nutrient substitute. We cultivate the pumpkins and add a gel as a cultivation medium. It absolutely reduce the expenses since the cultivation utilizes materials easily got in a traditional market,” told Ilyas Al Akbar, a team leader as well as a student of Department of Agrotechnology of batch 2015.

Ilyas informed that it reached 85 percent of the research accomplishment. “Alhamdulillah, the research runs well and our temporary research hypothesis is that pumpkins can be used as a good substitute medium to cultivate Myrmecodia pendans since the result is the same as cultivation using synthetic chemicals. Our team is going to do a further analysis to gain a better research finding,” expressed Ilyas. He also expected that the research can contribute to development of science and can be a reference for further studies.