Absorbance Value of Tobacco (Nicotiana Tabacum) Essential Oil to Ultraviolet Radiation in the Way to Investigate the Potential of Tobacco Leaf for Sunscreen Substance

High intensity of ultraviolet radiation is one of environmental problems to be solved especially in tropical country with a long duration of sun exposure like Indonesia. Esthetically, it causes wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, skin sagging, sun burn, etc. Medically, it causes genetic mutation at cellular scale and skin cancer at higher scale. Besides, it causes other health problems such as immune system disorder and cataract. Sunscreen is needed to protect the skin from ultraviolet damage. Since it is the first gate of radiation to enter the whole body. Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) leaf is a potential herb to be used for radiation protection. It contains various antioxidants including aromatic substance. Generally, tobacco commodity is only used for cigarette industry and as we know, there are many environmental and health problems caused by its smoke. The problem is, we cannot stop the cigarette industry without giving solutions to the tobacco farmers. The only way to keep alive tobacco farming, is by finding tobaccos other potentials. In this case, we are about to check the potential of tobacco leaf for radiation protection by seeing the absorbance value of tobacco essential oil to ultraviolet radiation. In this experiment, tobacco essential oil was gained by distillation methods using water distillatory tube. The tobacco leaves were supplied by Tobacco Information Center (TIC) Jember, East Java. Tobacco essential oil from the distillation process has the density of 0.976 g/ml and has a strong scent. Absorption ability was checked by using Spectrophotometer Ultraviolet Visible. In this process, the essential oil was diluted with isopropyl alcohol in the concentration of 0.125%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5% and 3%. In that variety of concentration, the absorbance value was investigated in the range of erythema and pigmentation wavelength (290-375 nm). Erythemal transmission value is 0.41%, 0.44%, 0.49%, 0.57%, 0.68%, 0.85%, 0.92% and 0.98% and the pigmentation transmission value is 0.55%, 0.58%, 0.63%, 0.71%, 0.80%, 0.91%, 0.96% and 0.99%. Those numbers represent the percentage of ultraviolet energy transmitted by the essential oil. It means the active compound of tobacco oil absorbed the rest. The category of total sunblock, requires erythemal and pigmentation transmission value under 1%. Minimum concentration of the solution when it can still absorb the ultraviolet radiation based on the graphic is 0.0047%. The results showed that tobacco essential oil is a kind of total sunblock and is effective to use for sunscreen substance.