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researcher from the Mathematics and Science Faculty of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (FMIPA-IPB) successfully developed a substance taken from chicken egg shells to enhance the rehabilitation of human bone.

FMIPA-IPB Physics Department lecturer Kiagus Dahlan extracted calcium from the chicken egg shell to produce a biocompatible and biodegradable hydroxyapatite compound that could be used to boost bone growth.

Kiagus explained that calcium carbonates compose 95 percent of egg shells and that calcium is the main element in bone tissue. The use of egg shell waste as a calcium source in the creation of biomaterial for bone substitute has its added value.

“We use the waste to produce a synthetic compound that could enhance bone growth,” he said.       

The research had been registered as the best Indonesia innovation in 2009/2010, as it is considered most prospective for development or mass production.

Bone tissue comprises osteoblast, osteocyte and osteoclast cells, which play major roles in bone rehabilitation. The cells enable human bone to regenerate. If a bone is fractured, the bone will automatically rehabilitate itself. However, in many clinical cases, surgery and bone grafting are introduced to reconstruct a fractured bone.

Bone reconstruction through grafting is usually done by using allograft, autograft and xenograft. Material for allograft is taken from human bone, while xenograft from mammals is from bovine species. Allograft and xenograft are now considered unsafe due to immunology issues.

During his research Kiagus Dahlan was assisted by FMIPA students — most of them in their final year — who spent hours in the laboratories at Darmaga campus in Bogor producing a powder substance from chicken egg shells.