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News Briefs week ending January 07, 2010

DMMM STATE UNIVERSITY WINS THE CHEMREZ GREEN CHEMISTRY AWARD - STUDENT CATEGORY

The Chemrez Green Chemistry Award - Student Category, on the other hand, was won by the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University, Laboratory High School in Agoo, La Union. The winning research, entitled ?The Termiticidal Potential of Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M. King and H. Robinson? and conducted by the students of the State University, was about a plant?s ability to exterminate termites. Locally known as hagonoy, chromolaena odorata is a shrub that grows abundantly in many parts of the tropics including the Philippines.

Commercially available termiticides are made from hazardous chemicals. Motivated to develop a green substitute, the students explored and identified the hagonoy plant as a possible source of a non-hazardous and environment friendly termiticide. In the experiments that were conducted, hagonoy leaves were found to possess a termiticidal property which is at least equal, if not better, than a leading commercial termiticide.