Significance of the study

This study of Basella Alba as highlighter ink provides many advantages such as promoting an
environmental friendly way of making ink, and avoids exposure of harmful chemicals from
commercial inks. This project is trying to help students who are less fortunate acquire simple
things that they cannot simply acquire because of financial problems. This will lessen your
expenses and is not toxic which is not a very common component of commercial inks.

Scope and Limitations

This study aims to test the good qualities of alugbati seeds in producing natural highlighter ink.
This study limits only the making of alugbati seeds as an highlighter ink.

Materials
Purple basella alba seeds
Saucepan
Strainer
Bowl
Water
Stove

Pick out purple alugbati seeds

Add the alugbati seeds to the sauce pan and add water enough to cover the seeds
Boil the mixture and simmer for 20 minutes until dark purple color
Turn off the heat source and allow to dye to cool
Use a strainer to separate the dye and the pieces of seeds.
Chapter II: Review of Related Literature

Basella Alba
Basella Alba also known as Alugbati or Malabar Spinach is a fast growing vine with liht green
heart shaped leaves. There is also other varieties of Alugbati where the vine has a pronounced
red color. The young leaves and its tips can be used for cooking and as a substitute for spinach.
The plant bears cluster of flowers that are pinkish on spikes from the start and will eventually
turn into green seeds that will become black when mature.
https://www.maribehlla.com/vegetables/alugbati/

The flowers are followed by ornamental,four-parted deep-purple to black berries (drupes). The
tasteless red-purple juice of the fresh berries can stain and is used as a dye or food colorant in
Asia. The fruits can be dried whole for planting the following year.

https://wimastergardener.org/article/malabar-spinach

According to Jericho McCune Alugbati is a fruit bearing plant native to Africa and East Asia.
With simple materials, the juice from the Alugbati can be used to create ink for writing that is
safe to use and is dark red in color.
https://homesteady.com/12354472/how-to-make-ink-from-alogbati

Ink
Ink, as a writing tool, has been around since what is believed to be one of its original uses in the
form of a dye as a means of writing on the insides of caves. They derived this rudimentary form
of ink from regional fruits, vegetables and minerals. This eventually evolved over hundred of
years so that both pigments and dyes from fish and animal parts were used as ink to create
symbolic communication, but as ink for fabric and clothing and other items. The history of ink
begins many centuries ago.

The foundational makeup of ink is pigments and dyes. Pigments can be created organically and
artificially particles that are insoluble and are not affected by any chemicals that are present in
the item that they are being incorporated with, such as ink, and only absorb in selective areas.
However, dyes are soluble and when they are incorporated with a medium like ink they elicit
colors through the chemicals.

https://www.mixerdirect.com/blogs/mixer-direct-blog/how-ink-is-made

Highlighter

Highlighter is a variant of felt-tip pen with water-based ink that is used for marking of text. It
uses vivid, translucent color that makes text stand out more without obscuring it. It is very
popular with students who use them to mark important parts of text for easier learning.
The first two marker pens appeared in 1910 and 1926, respectively and were not sold
commercially. The first one was Lee Newman’s felt-tip marker and second one Benjamin
Paskach’s "fountain paintbrush" - a sponge-tipped handle with colors inside. Walter J. De Groft
made a "marking pen" in 1944 and would later sell it to become a “Sharpie” pen in 1964. But
before Sharpie appeared Sidney Rosenthal invented and started selling in 1953 a “Magic
Marker”. The first predecessor of a highlighter was invented by a Japanese inventor Yukio Horie
of the Tokyo Stationery Company, who developed in 1962 the first felt-tip pen that used water-
based ink. It was not made to highlight texts, but it inspired Carter’s Ink Company to, in 1963,
start manufacturing similar water-based Marker with translucent ink. It was sold under the name
Hi-Liter, and it worked on capillary action.

http://www.historyofpencils.com/writing-instruments-history/history-of-highlighters/
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Paper is important because of its huge contribution to people. It is commonly used for data-
gathering as well as data preservation in making researches and expressing people’s thoughts. It
serves as a connection between past and present events. Not only students are the ones using
papers but also educators,businessmen, doctors and even normal citzens, thus it becomes a great
demand for everyone.

The rapid decreasing of trees due to their uses for business, specifically it’s use as a main
source of paper, may lead to certain calamities which will surely affect people’s daily living.
Even with tree planting, it is hard to restore the lost resources and has to wait for decades for
these trees to grow again.

One of the uses of trees is paper production. To help conserve nature, alternative sources o
paper should be uses. Carabao manure is mostly made off digested grass and contains 34.17%
organic matter; 2.67% nitrogen; 0.45% phosphorus; and 0.82% potassium.

The researchers chose carabao manure because it is ecologically friendly and is finanacially
affordable. Aside from these, carabao manure is freely available due to the improper defacation
of carabaos in the community.

(Gabilan, M. et al.,2013 Papermaking Retrieved from academia https://www.academia.edu)

OBJECTIVES/ RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This study aims to determine if carabao manure can be a suitable alternative source of paper.
Specifically, this research aims to determine the following properties of carabao manure paper
such as:

a.)Color

b.)Texture

c.)Durability

HYPOTHESIS

1. There is no significant difference between commercial paper and paper made from
carabao manure.

2. The carabao anure paper has the same properties such as texture, color, and durability as the
commercial one.