Proceeding of the International Innovation Technology Exhibition & Conferences 2019 (Itec’19)

Proceeding of the International Innovation Technology
Exhibition & Conferences 2019 (Itec’19)
GEARING UP FOR INDUSTRY 4.0

September 24th - 25th, 2019
Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi MARA (KKTM) Kemaman

Organizer: KKTM, Kemaman
Co-Organizer: Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) and Universiti Kuala Lumpur
(UniKL)

Scientific Academia Network Publisher

International Innovation Technology Exhibition &
Conferences 2019 (Itec’19)

Conference Date: September 24th - 25th, 2019

Copyright @ 2020
Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi MARA (KKTM) Kemaman

All rights reserved. No part of this proceeding may be reproduced in any form except
for the inclusion of brief quotations in review, without permission in writing from the
author or publisher

Proceeding Editors: Associate Professor Ts. Ir. Dr. Kumaran a/l Kadirgama, Associate
Professor Ir. Dr. Wan Sharuzi bin Wan Harun, Associate Professor Ts. Dr. Devarajan a/l
Ramasamy

Publisher:
Scientific Academia Network
B 10-1F, JALAN IM 7/2
Suria Atabara, Bandar Indera Mahkota
25200 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
E-ISBN: 978-967-17985-0-8

SA Conference Proceeding: Industrial Revolution 4.0 Vol.1, Issue 01 (2020)
International Innovation Technology Exhibition and Conferences 2019 (Itec’19)

LIST OF CONTENTS

TOPIC PAGE
01-13
INTENTION TO PURCHASE ORGANIC PRODUCTS IN MALAYSIA: USING
PARTIAL LEAST SQUARES STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING (PLS-SEM)
M.Z. Zaidazuriani, A. Noniwati and E. Fauziah

FACTORS INFLUENCING ONLINE SHOPPING BEHAVIOUR INTENTION: 14-22
THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR APPROACH
W. M. Wan Ishak and N. R. Mohamad Idris

BRINE SHRIMP LETHALITY ASSAY OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF 23-28
ORTHOSIPHON STAMINEUS BENTH. LEAVES
Nur Farah Amalina Mughni, Fatin Fathiah Mohammad Yusop

THE INVESTIGATION OF CINNAMON LEAF OIL NANOCREAM FOR 29-37
ANTIMICROBIAL AND SKIN IRRITATION
Nor Azah Zainol, Yusrida Darwis and Nor Asfaliza Abdullah

A REVIEW ON USER EXPERIENCE MODELS FOR THE HEARING-IMPAIRED 38-45
MOBILE APPLICATIONS
Normala Mohamad, Nor Laily Hashim

PERSONALITY TRAIT AND ENVIRONMENT: ARE THEY WEDGED THE 46-57
ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTENTION
Myazaitul Akma Mohammad

AUTOMATED LIGHT CONTROL FOR IOT APPLICATION 58-64
N. A. Zainuddin, H. Hashim, N. Mhd Yatim, and N. A. T. Mohd Zain

MODELLING AND VALIDATION OF QUARTER VEHICLE TRACTION MODEL 65-73
Sharil Izwan Haris and Fauzi Ahmad, Ahmad Kamal Mat Yamin

RELEVANCE OF METAPHYSICS ON FUNCTIONAL PERFORMANCE OF 74-85
COMMERCIAL BUILDING DESIGNS
Nor Aniswati Awang Lah and Masran

EARLY DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH ON FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE 86-91
BUSINESS FINANCING REPAYMENT AMONG THE LENDERS
Noor Huda Binti Kamaludin, Ismail Omar

HOW EFFECTIVE IS MALAYSIAN STUDIES SUBJECT IN DEVELOPING 92-101
PATRIOTISM AMONG DIPLOMA STUDENTS AT INSTITUT KEMAHIRAN MARA
SIK
S. Bakar , N. Ab. Rahim , N. A. Mohd Tobi

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SA Conference Proceeding: Industrial Revolution 4.0 Vol.1, Issue 01 (2020)
International Innovation Technology Exhibition and Conferences 2019 (Itec’19)

102-110

READINESS OF CHANGE LEADERSHIP PRACTICES IN THE SUSTAINABILITY
OF INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE DIPLOMA PROGRAM (IBDP) IN
MARA COLLEGE
Satinah Awang, Kenny Cheah Soo Lee, Chua Yan Piaw

A SCIENTIFIC DEFINITION OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE WITHIN WAQF 111-116
CONTEXT
N.A. Ismail, I. Omar and K.S. Jamaludin

DEVELOPMENT OF AUTHENTIC LEARNING MODEL FOR TEACHING AND 117-126
LEARNING ACTIVITIES IN MALAYSIAN POLYTECHNICS
N. Z. Shafie and M. N. Abd Rashid

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF IDLE WAKAF 127-132
K.S. Jamaludin, I. Omar and N.A. Ismail

DESIGN, ANALYSIS AND BUILD MOTORCYCLE TRANSMISSION DRIVE 133-140
EXTENSION DEVICE
Aznizam A., Noorhelinahani A.B.

TOTAL FLAVONOID CONTENT, TOTAL PHENOLIC CONTENT AND 141-149
ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF ETHANOL EXTRACT FOR PIPER
SARMENTOSUM LEAF FROM TEN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS
Fatin Fathiah Yusop, Nur Farah Amalina Mughni

EXOSKELETON FOR DAMAGING LEGS: STUDY, DEVELOPMENT AND THE 150-155
FUTURE
Aiman M.S, M. Akif Adam, Nazrul H. Adnan and N. Shahri

A GALLERY WALK TO REMEMBER 156-163
Juhari Sham bin Jusoh and Rosmawati binti Mohd Daud

POST-INTERNSHIP SKILLS GAP IDENTIFICATION AMONG MALAYSIAN 164-171
ENGINEERING STUDENTS
Noor Azwani Zakaria, Seriaznita Mat Said and Sarimah Shamsudin

SCHOOL-BASED SUBSTANCE USE PREVENTION PROGRAMS, 172-180
FORMULATED EDUCATION MODULES 181-187
Nor Shadira Binti Jamaluddin
GAMIFICATION IN LEARNING PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
Azlinda Shafie and Zaleha Abdullah

BAJU RIAU PAHANG : POTONGAN DAN MATERIAL ISTIMEWA DALAM 188-197
PENGHASILAN
BAJU
Aszulhida Aman, Ros Mahwati Ahmad Zakaria, Zuliskandar Ramli

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SA Conference Proceeding: Industrial Revolution 4.0 Vol.1, Issue 01 (2020) 01-13
International Innovation Technology Exhibition & Conferences 2019 (Itec’19), September 24th - 25th 2019
Copyright © 2020 Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi MARA (KKTM) Kemaman
E-ISBN: 978-967-17985-0-8

Intention to purchase Organic Products in Malaysia: Using Partial Least Squares
Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM)

M. Z. Zaidazuriani1, A. Noniwati2,* and E. Fauziah3

1,2,3Commerce Department, Polytechnic Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah,
25350 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
*Email: [email protected]

Phone: +6095655300; Fax: +6095663104

ABSTRACT

The word “organic” become a new phenomenal in our daily modern life style as more
people adopting a healthier lifestyle. They believed that by consuming organic products
which are free from chemical fertilizers and pesticides, their lives will become healthier,
safety guarantee and gradually can reduce or avoid chronic diseases. Organic food is the
most popular among other organic products such as toiletries, perfumers etc. In Malaysia,
the growing of organic industry is continuously due to consumer demand of organic food
and products is rising in recent year. Thus, the objective of this study is to examine the
relationship between independent factors (attitude, health, knowledge, and subjective
norms) towards the intention of purchasing organic foods. A quantitative study by
focusing on casual study was designed. Non-profitability sampling technique was used
due to unknown population consume organic foods in Malaysia. Convenience and
snowball sampling method were employed as it was the easiest accessible way to
distribute questionnaire and it was continuously spread out to other consumers. 100
organic consumers from Peninsular Malaysia were selected. Data was analysed by PLS-
SEM. The findings showed that knowledge and subjective norms have positive
relationship towards the intention to purchase organic products in Malaysia. In
conclusion, H3 and H4 were supported. Meanwhile, H1(attitude) and H2 (health) were
unsupported.

Keywords: Attitude, health, knowledge, subjective norms, intention, organic products.

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays consume organic products become a trend for good quality life style, healthier
and safety guarantee. There are so many varieties in organic products and the most
popular is organic food. Among organic food, vegetables were the most consumed
followed by fruits, food supplements and meat. In Malaysia, the growing of organic
industry is continuously due to consumer demand of organic food and products is rising
in recent year. It is projected that the demand will be grew more than 12.4% yearly with
the financial value of excess than RM20 million a year (Syahrin, Illani Zuraihah & Mohd
Amirul Mukmin, 2016).

Organic product is a product labelled “100% organic” and it must contain only
organically produced ingredients and processing aids (excluding water and salt). Organic
is uses crops, livestock and product without synthetic chemicals, hormones, antibiotic
agents, genetic engineering and irradiation. In order to qualify as organic, crops must be

M. Z. Zaidazuriani et al.

produced on farms that have not used most synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer
for 3 years before harvest and have a sufficient buffer zone to decrease contamination
from adjacent lands (Forman & Silverstein, 2012).

Organic products are very beneficial to human wellbeing because it contains more
nutrients over in organic products. The exposure of the chemicals can give bad effects
on health, especially during fatal development and childhood. Due to that, people prefer
organic product for various reasons as they are healthier and no chance of having
chemicals in organic product (Sivathanu, 2015).

In Malaysia all organic foods must be labelled by myOrganic Malaysia.
MyOrganic Malaysia is a certificate given by The Department of Agriculture Malaysia
(DOA) to the organic farms to ensure the organic farms follow the criteria and procedures
under the Malaysian Standard MS1529:2015 Plant-based Organically produces foods
requirements for production, processing, handling, labelling and marketing (First
Revision). The main objective of myOrganic is to produce high quality organic foods and
safety to consume (DOA, 2018).

Research Statement and Objectives

Previous studies from worldwide found that there were many factors influenced
consumers in purchasing organic products for example the study done by Syahrin et al.
(2016) revealed that 90% of Malaysian consumers defined organic products as products
with free chemicals, good for health and all natural. They also believed that organic
products especially food are healthy and nutritional benefits. In addition, 46.2%
consumers have purchased organic products regularly and 53.8% consumed them at least
once in six months. As a result of high demand on organic products, the number of
farmers accredited by myOrganic also increases from 29 farms in 2011 to 71 farms in
2018 (Department of Agriculture [DOA], 2018).

Meanwhile, study done by Caesar (2017) in Ghana revealed that students have
positively on purchase intention of organic products because of health consciousness and
their knowledge on organic products. Besides, all users in Iran found that organic
knowledge, quality, price consciousness and attitude have positive impact on purchasing
organic products (Saleki, Seyedsaleki & Rahimi, 2012). Consumers in Indonesia also
have positive attitude to buy organic food due to health and environmental consciousness
(Irianto, 2015). Also, study in India found that females with age group of 29-39 prefers
to buy organic products because of their perception on organic food are healthy and safe,
nutritious and environment friendly (Sivathanu, 2015).

Due to this rapid increase on organic products worldwide, the objective of this
study is to examine the relationship between independent variables such as attitude,
health, knowledge, and subjective norms with the intention of purchasing organic foods
among consumers in Malaysia.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES

The proposed of research model is adopted based on Theory Planned Behavior (TPB) by
Azjen(1991). The research model of this study consists of attitude, subjective norms,

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M. Z. Zaidazuriani et al.

health and knowledge in motivating the intention to purchase organic product. These are
elaborate as follows.

Figure 1. Research Model
Attitude And Intention On Purchasing Organic Products
Attitude refers as the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavourable on the
concerned behaviour. Consumer has stronger to do such the behaviour if he/she has more
positive attitude towards a product (Ajzen 1991). Some previous studies found that there
was a positive relationship between attitude and intention on purchasing organic products.

For example, attitude becomes a key factor towards intention on purchasing
organic foods (Hogersen, 2007 & Chen, 2007). Meanwhile, Caesar (2017) revealed that
students in Ghana have intention to purchase organic fruits and vegetables due to their
positive attitudes on them that can bring healthier and safer life. In addition, study done
by Voon, Ngui and Agrawal (2011) on consumers in Kuching, Sarawak reported that
attitudes have positive effects on willingness to pay organic food. Chen (2007) also found
that consumer’s attitude to organic foods in Taiwan was positive with the intention to
purchase organic foods. Therefore, the results of the studies conducted above could guide
this study to predict attitudes and intention to purchase organic foods. Thus,
H1: There is a positive relationship between attitude and intention of purchasing Organic
Foods in Malaysia.

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M. Z. Zaidazuriani et al.

Health and Intention on Purchasing Organic Foods

Health Consciouness defines as consumers who are concerned about healthy diet and
lifestyles (Newsom, McFarland, Kaplan, Huguet & Zaini, 2005) and also contains healthy
ingredients (Caesar, 2017).

Numerous studies illustrate that health consciousness has a relationship with
consumption of organic foods such a study done by Suh, Eves and Lumbers (2012)
revealed that consumers who are trust that organic food brings good health, will consume
it without any fear and skepticism. In addition, the healthy organic food becomes a strong
motivator to purchase organic food among Australian consumers (Lockie, Lyons,
Lawrence, Mummery, 2002). Also, Chen (2007) revealed that health consciousness has
positive relationship towards purchasing organic food. In contrary, study done by
Tarkiainen and Sundqvist (2005) found that health consciousness did not has any
relationship with purchasing organic flour and bread. It is therefore hypothesized that:

H2: There is a positive relationship between Health Consciousness and intention of
purchasing Organic Foods in Malaysia.

Knowledge and Intention on Purchasing Organic Foods

Consumer Knowledge on organic foods is very important before making a decision to
buy them. They have to know the differences between organic foods and conventional
foods in term of benefits and prices. Normally, prices are much higher on organic foods
compare to non-organic foods (Caesar, 2017).

Previous studies confirmed that information or knowledge on organic food has
associated with consumption of organic foods. According to Vukasovic (2013), extra
knowledge on organic foods positively influence the level of consumption organic foods.
The higher knowledge will motivate consumers to purchasing it, meanwhile low
knowledge will prevent them to buy it. It is in line with study done by Stobbelaar, Casimir,
Borghuis, Marks, Meijer and Zebeda (2007) indicated that higher level of knowledge on
organic foods has positively related towards the purchasing it. However, level of
knowledge on organic foods has no significant relationship toward the consumption of
organic foods among Austrian high school (Gotschi, Vogel & Lindenthal, 2007). Then,
the hypothesis is developed:

H3: There is a positive relationship between Knowledge and intention of purchasing
Organic Foods in Malaysia.

Subjective Norms and Intention on Purchasing Organic Foods

Subject norm defined as “the perceived social pressure to perform or not perform the
behaviour” (Ajzen ,1991). Perceived social pressure from family members, friends,
colleagues, teachers and communities will also motivate the individual intention with
those beliefs (Rajagopal, Ramanan, Visvanathan & Satapathy, 2015). Chen (2007)
believed that if their closed ones think consume organic foods bring more benefits, then
they will do so.

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M. Z. Zaidazuriani et al.

There are many studies related with subjective norm and the intention of purchasing
organic products and most of study found a significant positive relationship between
subjective norm and intention of purchasing organic products (Voon et. al. ,2011 and
Dean, Raats & Shepherd, 2008). On the other hand, Chinese consumer revealed that
subjective norm or social pressure from relatives did not have positive relationship
towards purchasing organic foods (Yang et al., 2014). It is in line with the study done by
Chen (2007), Bamberg, Hunecke and Blobaum (2007) and Saleki, Seyedsaleki and
Rahimi (201 2) revealed that subjective norm did not has positive effects on the
relationship with the intention on purchasing organic foods. Therefore, based on the
results of these previous studies it can be concluded that:

H4: There is a positive relationship between subjective norms and purchase intention of
organic foods.

METHODOLOGY

This study was categorized as causal research design which attempted to examine the
relationship between independent and dependent variables. Thus, a quantitative approach
was selected by distributing questionnaires to consumers who consume organic food in
Malaysia. Non-Probability sampling technique was used due to unknown population
consumed organic foods.

Survey questionnaires were distributed through personal media social such as
Whats app, Facebook and Instagram and by hand. The questionnaire was inspired by
similar ones used by existing research Yang, Sarah & Nguyen (2014). Convenience and
snowball sampling were applying. First, convenience sampling was employed as initial
respondents such as friends and family who were consumed organic foods by using
Google form. Afterwards the questionnaire was continuously spread out to other
consumers by initial respondent’s friends. Questionnaires also distributed by hand to the
consumers of organic foods at the organic shop outlets. Data collection was taken one
month from the date of distribution. Only one hundred consumers who intend to purchase
organic foods were completed and submitted their answer.

DATA ANALYSIS

Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique was employed due to fewer data (only
100 respondents), non-normal data and the research goal of the study was to predict the
relationship between independent variables and dependent variable. According to Ringle,
Wende and Becker (2015) and Ramayah, Jacky, Francis, Hiram and Mumtaz (2018),
SEM only can be used if the data is abnormal, less and not more one hundred and the
objective of study is to predict relationship. Thus, Smart PLS-SEM was found more
appropriate and befitting the purpose of the study due to abnormal data and the
respondents were 100 peoples.

Respondent Demographics

Table 1 shows the respondents profile where 84 percent consist of female and 16 percent
male. The highest age range respondents for the study is between 36 to 45 years’ old

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M. Z. Zaidazuriani et al.

which is 49.0 percent, and the highest monthly income range is between 3001 to 6000
translated to 33.0 percent.

Table 1: Respondents Profile

Research Objective: The Relationship Between Attitude, Health, Knowledge,
Subjective Norms And The Intention To Purchase Organic Foods.
Hypotheses test was analyzed by using PLS-SEM. Before testing the hypotheses, the
measurement model is employed as it is prerequisite of the test.
Measurement model
Assessment criterion of measurement model are internal consistency reliability,
convergent validity and discriminant validity.

Internal consistency is measured by looking at the loadings, average variance
extracted (AVE), and composite reliability (CR) in order to estimate the reliability on
inter-correlation of the observed construct (Ramayah, Cheah, Chuah, Ting & Mumtaz,
2018). According to Hair et al. (2017), accepted value for factor loadings are set at >0.5,
the composite reliability (CR) are >0.7 in measuring Internal consistency and the average
variance extracted (AVE) are at >0.5 to measure the convergent validity. Ramayah et al.
(2018) defines convergent validity as a degree to which the latent construct explained the
variance of its indicator.

Figure 2 and Table 2 shows all the constructs are achieve accepted value as
suggested by Hair et al. (2017) and theses constructs have high levels of internal
consistency due to the composite reliability (CR) values are above 0.7 such as Attitude
(0.961), Health Consciousness (0.985), Knowledge (0.939), Subjective norm (0.947) and
0.928 (Intention) . The variables in this study also demonstrate good convergent validity
as all the constructs achieve above threshold value of 0.5 for average variance extracted
(AVE) which is an indication that the items explain more than 50 per cent of the
construct’s variances (Hair et al., 2014). In conclusion, the instrument was very reliable,
appropriate, suitable and can be accepted to be used in real study.

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M. Z. Zaidazuriani et al.

Figure 1. Measurement Model Result

Table 2. Convergent validity

CONSTRUCT ITEM Loadings (>0.5) CR AVE
ATTITUDE (>0.7) (>0.5)
HEALTH 0.892
KNOWLEDGE ATTITUDE1 0.91 0.961
SUBJECTIVE 0.955
INTENTION ATTITUDE2 0.962
0.838
ATTITUDE3 0.898
0.856
HEALTH1 0.970 0.985
0.928
HEALTH2 0.983

HEALTH3 0.979

KNOWLEDGE1 0.848 0.939

KNOWLEDGE2 0.955

KNOWLEDGE3 0.939

SUBJECTIVE1 0.919 0.947

SUBJECTIVE2 0.950

SUBJECTIVE3 0.907

INTENTION1 0.964 0.975

INTENTION2 0.979

INTENTION3 0.946

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M. Z. Zaidazuriani et al.

Discriminant validity refers to the extent the constructs are truly distinct from one
another. Discriminant validity assess by examining three types of criteria which are cross
loadings, Fornell-Larcker Criterion and HTMT Criterion (Ramayah et al., 2018). Table 3
below shows that there is no issue of high cross-loading among one another. Thus,
discriminant validity is achieved.

Table 3. Discriminant Validity Cross Loading

ATTITUDE HEALTH INTENTION KNOWLEDG SUBJECTIVE
E

ATTITUDE1 0.973 0.774 0.661 0.735 0.481

ATTITUDE2 0.964 0.717 0.633 0.706 0.517

ATTITUDE3 0.910 0.624 0.518 0.610 0.347

HEALTH1 0.736 0.972 0.636 0.744 0.586

HEALTH2 0.719 0.985 0.650 0.735 0.593

HEALTH3 0.742 0.982 0.634 0.747 0.571

INTENTION1 0.617 0.602 0.964 0.784 0.671

INTENTION2 0.662 0.662 0.979 0.792 0.701

INTENTION3 0.571 0.624 0.948 0.699 0.694

KNOWLEDGE1 0.590 0.593 0.632 0.865 0.475

KNOWLEDGE2 0.682 0.719 0.769 0.957 0.582

KNOWLEDGE3 0.723 0.769 0.768 0.942 0.524

SUBJECTIVE1 0.450 0.557 0.642 0.581 0.925

SUBJECTIVE2 0.435 0.516 0.639 0.473 0.943

SUBJECTIVE3 0.445 0.580 0.702 0.539 0.914

In addition, the Fornell-Larcker Criterion result’s shows that square-root of AVE of a
construct are larger than the correlations between the construct and other constructs in the
model (Table 4) and it indicates there is discriminant validity among the constructs.

Table 4. Discriminant Validity - Fornell-Lacker Criterion

ATTITUDE HEALTH INTENTION KNOWLEDGE SUBJECTIVE

ATTITUDE 0.949

HEALTH 0.747 0.980

INTENTION 0.641 0.654 0.963

KNOWLEDGE 0.724 0.757 0.788 0.922

SUBJECTIVE 0.478 0.595 0.714 0.573 0.927

Meanwhile, Table 5 shows the assessment of discriminant validity using the
Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT) Ratio Correlations as suggested by Henseler, Ringle, and
Sarstedt (2015). The results demonstrate that the values are lower than required threshold
value of HTMT 0.85 (Kline, 2011) and HTMT 0.90 (Gold et al., 2001). indicating that
discriminant validity is established for the constructs. It also shows that the result of
HTMT does not show a value of 1 on any of the constructs (Henseler et al., 2015), which
also confirms discriminant validity.

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M. Z. Zaidazuriani et al.

Table 5. Discriminant Validity - HTMT less than 0.9 or less than 0.85

ATTITUDE HEALTH INTENTION KNOWLEDGE SUBJECTIVE

ATTITUDE

HEALTH 0.772

INTENTION 0.666 0.673

KNOWLEDGE 0.773 0.797 0.837 0.624
SUBJECTIVE 0.507 0.626 0.759

In conclusion, all the results of the constructs confirm discriminant validity is achieved
based on cross loadings, Fornell-Larcker Criterion and HTMT.

Structural model

It is important to ensure that there are no lateral collinearity issues in the structural model
(Ramayah et. al, 2018). According to Kock and Lynn (2012), although the vertical
collinearity (discriminant validity) is met, the lateral collinearity must be assessed
separately for each subset of structural model. Table 6 presents the outcome of the
collinearity test by looking at Variance Inflator Factor (VIF). The VIF value for each of
the constructs is lower than the offending value of 3.3 (Diamantopoulos and Siguaw,
2006), which suggesting that there is no issue with collinearity problem in the study.

Table 6. Collinearity Statistic VIF less than or equal to 5.0

Intention

Attitude 2.851

Health 3.424

knowledge 3.949

Subjective 1.772

The hypothesis test is supported based on 3 condition which are i) direction and
beta value will show the direction either positive or negative, ii) T-Value must higher
than 1.645, significant at 0.05, or 2.33; significant at 0.01 and iii) Lower level (LL) and
Upper Level (UL), there should not have 0 in the between (Ramayah et al., 2018).

From Table 7, the proposed relationships, both of independent variables are found
statistically significant at 99 per cent confidence interval. The results show that positive
directions are Knowledge -> Intention, beta=0.326, t= 3.156, LL =-0.160, UL= 0.497 and
Subjective -> Intention, beta=0.362, t= 5.309, LL =-0.261, UL= 0.478). Hence, H3 and
H4 are supported and it is concluded that Knowledge and Subjective Norm have positive
relationship toward the intention of acquiring Organic Products. Meanwhile, Attitude
(H1) and Health Consciousness (H2) are not have positive relationship towards intention
to purchase organic foods.

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M. Z. Zaidazuriani et al.

Table 7. Path Coefficient Assessment

Hypothesis Relationship Beta SE T Value P Values LL UL Decision
Unsupported
H1 Attitude -> 0.034 0.074 0.457 0.324 -0.086 0.155 Unsupported
Intention
Supported
H2 Health -> -0.173 0.092 1.889 0.030 -0.295 0.020 Supported
Intention

H3 Knowledge -> 0.326 0.103 3.156 0.001 0.160 0.497
Intention

H4 Subjective -> 0.362 0.068 5.309 0.000 0.261 0.478
Intention

5.0 DISCUSSION

The study revealed that knowledge(H3 )and subjective norm (H4) have positive
relationship towards intention to purchase organic foods. The reason may be because of
the increasing knowledge on benefits of organic foods will motivate the high demand
towards organic foods from the local and worldwide. Meanwhile, lack of knowledge such
as they didn’t know the existing on organic foods or the benefits of them could be the
basic reason for consumers not have an intention to purchase organic foods.

This is in aligned with the study done by Vukasovic (2013) and Stobbelaar et al.
(2007) revealed that if consumers have high level of knowledge related on organic food
and it’s benefits, automatically they have a positive intention to purchase and consume it.
However, Gotschi et al.(2007) found that there is no significant relationship towards
purchasing organic foods among Austria high school even though they have high level of
knowledge on it. May be it causes due to high selling price organic foods in the market
and as students they don’t have enough budget to spend on organic foods.

Subjective norm, it also has a positive relationship towards intention to purchase
organic foods. The main reason may be because of their loved one like it, so they are
following them. This is in line with previous studies done by Voon et. al. (2011) and
Dean et al.(2008) revealed that there is a positive and significant correlation between
subjective norm and intention to purchase organic foods. However, findings from Yang
et al. (2014), Chen (2007), Bamberg et al. (2007) and Saleki et al. (201 2) were contradict
with the finding of this study. It shows that pressure of social not merely influence their
decision to purchase organic or non-organic foods.

On the other hand, the results found that hypotheses one(H1) is unsupported on
this study. There is no positive relationship between attitude and intention of purchasing
Organic Foods in Malaysia. The main reason of this result is may be because of the higher
price on organic foods compare to the non-organic foods. This finding is contradict with
the previous studies such as Caesar (2017), Voon et al.(2011), Chen(2007) and
Tarkiainen and Sundqvist(2005) revealed that their positive attitudes on organic foods
can bring more healthy and safety life will motivate them to have intention on purchasing
organic foods.

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M. Z. Zaidazuriani et al.

In addition, hypotheses two(H2) is also unsupported on this study. Health
consciousness not merely plays an important role towards intention in purchasing on
organic foods. The main reason may because of the organic foods are more expensive
than non-organic foods. Consumers with high level of incomes may afford to purchase it
rather than other group of incomes. This finding is supported by Tarkiainen and Sundqvist
(2005) and in contrary with the results of study done by Suh et al.(2012), Chen (2007)
and Lockie et al.(2002) revealed that consumers who are belief that organic food is good
for health, will consume it without any fear and suspicion and the healthy organic food
becomes a strong motivator to purchase organic food among consumers.

CONCLUSION

Organic food is the most popular among other organic products such as toiletries,
perfumers etc. In Malaysia, the growing of organic industry is continuously due to
consumer demand of organic food and products is rising in recent year. The findings
showed that knowledge and subjective norms have positive relationship towards the
intention to purchase organic products in Malaysia. In conclusion, H3 and H4 were
supported. Meanwhile, H1(attitude) and H2 (health) were unsupported.

This study has some limitations due to the samples obtained were only from
Peninsular Malaysia, thus, future studies need to expand the population and the
geographical location to Sabah and Sarawak. In addition the future studies may involve
with extra variables in measuring the intention of purchasing organic products. This
expansion of sample size and variables may influence other results on the research model
proposed.

Reference List

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[7] Lockie, S., Lyons, K., Lawrence, G. & Mummery, K. Eating ‘green’: Motivations
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[8] Newson,J.T., McFarland, B.H., Kaplan, M.S., Huguet, N., & Zaini, B. The health
consciousness myth: implications of the near independence of major health behaviors
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[12] Thogersen, J. Consumer decision making with regard to organic food products in Vaz,
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[16] Kock, N. and Lynn, G. Lateral Collinearity in SEM. Journal of the Association for
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[17] Henseler,J., Ringle, C.M. and Sarstedt, M. A New Criterion for Assessing
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Disertation, Ghent University.2017.

[22] Ramayah, T., Jacky, C., Francis, C., Hiram, T., and Mumtaz, A.M. Partial Least

Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 3.0. Pearson

Malaysia Sdn Bhd. 2018.

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least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Los Angeles, USA:

SAGE Publication, Inc. 2014.

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Reference to web pages

[24] Department of Agriculture Malaysia (DOA, 2018). Retrieved from

http://www.doa.gov.my/index.php/pages/view/377; January 2018.

[25] Ringle, C. M., Wende, S., & Becker, J.-M. 2015. SmartPLS 3. SmartPLS GmbH,

Boenningstedt. Retrived from; http://www.smartpls.com; April 2018.

[26] Stobbelaar , D.J., Casimir, G., Borghuis, J., Marks, I.,Meijer, L. & Zebeda, S. (2007)
Adolescents’ attitudes towards organic food: a survey of 15‐ to 16‐year old school

children. Journal of Consumer. Retrieved from

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2006.00560.x;

September 2018.

[27] Suh,B.W., Eves, A. & Lumbers, M.(2012). Consumers' Attitude and Understanding

of Organic Food: The Case of South Korea. Journal of foodservices business.

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2018.

[28] Syahrin, S., Illani Zuraihah, I. & Mohd Amirul Mukmin,A.W. (2016). Organic

Agriculture in Malaysia. Food and Fertilizer Technology Center for the Asian and

Pacific Region. Retrieved from http://ap.fftc.org.tw/ap_db.php?id=579Organic

Foods: Health and Environmental Advantages and Disadvantages; April 2018.

[29] Forman, J and Silverstein, J. (2012). Organic Foods: Health and Environmental

Advantages and Disadvantages COMMITTEE ON NUTRITION and COUNCIL ON

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Pediatrics November 2012, 130 (5) e1406-e1415;

Retrieved from DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2012-2579; May 2018.
[30] Gotschi,E. , Vogel,S. and Lindenthal, T. (2007). High school students’ attitudes and

behaviour towards organic products: survey results from Vienna. Retrieved from

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2b5c/ccb005cbbb3f448406658badbe653a31cf34.pd

f?_ga=2.23856761.2125216337.1573779907-1760159188.1573779907; April 2018.

13

SA Conference Proceeding: Industrial Revolution 4.0 Vol.1, Issue 01 (2020) 14-22
International Innovation Technology Exhibition & Conferences 2019 (Itec’19), September 24th - 25th 2019
Copyright © 2020 Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi MARA (KKTM) Kemaman
E-ISBN: 978-967-17985-0-8

Factors Influencing Online Shopping Behaviour Intention: Theory of Planned
Behaviour Approach

W. M. Wan Ishak1,* and N. R. Mohamad Idris1

1Commerce Department, Polytechnic of Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah,
25350 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
*Email: [email protected]

Phone: +6095655300; Fax: +6095663104

ABSTRACT

This study investigates consumers’ online shopping behaviour intention and identify the
factors that influence their intention to shop online based on Theory of Planned Behaviour
(TPB). This study used quantitative approach. Total samples of 118 respondents through
convenience sampling method were conducted in three main shopping malls in Kuantan.
Partial Least Square (PLS) technique of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used
to test the relationship between the research model construct. The results indicate that
subjective norm and perceived behavioural control play important role and have positive
relationship with online shopping behaviour intention. On the other hand, attitude is not
a significant predictor to online shopping behaviour intention. The findings from this
study will be useful and provides knowledge to sellers, manufacturers as well as web
developers to improve their services.

Keywords: Online shopping intention, Attitude, Aubjective norm, Aerceived
behavioural control.

INTRODUCTION

Technology developments has changed shopping trend among customers. Usage of
internet become a common source for purchasing and delivering the goods and services.
Nowadays, the internet has become a strong influence on peoples’ everyday life. The
growth of interest in the internet as a shopping and purchasing medium has been growing
tremendously (Osman et al., 2010). This is due to ease, comfort, convenience, cost saving,
time saving and quick delivery compared to conventional or traditional shopping (Hooria,
2014). Internet Users Survey 2018 by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia
Commission (MCMC) reported that the percentage of online shoppers among internet
users increased from 48.8% in 2016 to 53.3% in 2018. The adoption of electronic and
mobile wallet has also contributed to the increase number of online shoppers. With
growing number of people purchasing online, businesses or sellers have to upgrade
themselves to win the confidence of the consumers and attract more potential customers.

In the internet shopping market since there is no face to face contacts, analyzing
and identifying factors that influence the consumer is vital. Consumers have difference
personalities and purposes when they are trying to purchase online. Some are looking for
products or services, making survey or comparing price. Some of the potential buyers
will proceed with online purchase. Otherwise, they just doing survey, comparing price
and information available but not proceed to purchase. In order to increase online
shopping, understand public purchasing behavior, attitude and intention towards online

W. M. Wan Ishak and N. R. Mohamad Idris

shopping should be given priority. This study aims to examine the impacts of attitude,
subjective norm and perceived behavioral control on customers’ intention to purchase
online in Malaysia. The findings will be useful to all the online sellers to have better
understanding of their customers on factors that influences them to purchase online.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT

Online Shopping

According to Rizwan et al. (2014), online shopping is a process where the customer
purchase products and services directly from the seller using the internet as a medium.
Online shopping is e-commerce transaction where the customer do the purchase in the
platform and dealing directly with the seller. E-commerce can be address as e-shopping,
online shopping and internet shopping (Talal et al., 2011). Online purchase is getting
famous and growing well in Malaysia (Lim et al., 2015). According to official portal of
Department of Statistics Malaysia, the income of e-commerce in Malaysia in 2015 is
RM356.9 billion. The highest e-commerce income was obtained through business to
business (B2B), followed by business to consumer (B2C).

Attitude

According to Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), attitude (ATT) is the individual’s
feelings about performing a behavior whether positive or negative feelings. Online
purchase intention is defined as the perception of a positive or negative person to shop
online. Previous studies have found a positive and significant effect of attitude on online
purchase intention. Consumers’ attitude based on TPB is perceived favorable or
unfavorable feeling when someone doing something. It is a predictive of the person’s
intention to engage in a particular behavior (Abdullah et al., (2012). According to Marzieh
(2015), attitude is the extent of an individual’s positive feelings about online shopping. A
person with more positive attitude or more favorable is more susceptible to do online
purchasing. Other studies also found a positive and significant effect of attitude on online
purchase intention (Hassanein and Head (2007); Osman et al., 2010). Hence, this study
proposed:
H1: There is positive and significant effect of attitude on online purchase intention.

Subjective Norm

Another element in determining behavioral intention is subjective norm (SN). Subjective
norm is defined as an individual’s perception of whether people important to the
individual think the behavior should be performed. Those people are family or other
people who are considered as important such as peers, career counselors or teachers.
Subjective norm is clearly external factor that influence individual’s behavioral intention.
The relationship between subjective norm and online purchase intention has been
identified and some studies found a positive and significant effect of subjective norm on
online purchase intention (Orapin, 2009; Abdullah et. al., 2012; Cheng & Yee, 2014).
Then, hypothesis is proposed as below:
H2: There is positive and significant effect of subjective norm on online purchase
intention.

15

W. M. Wan Ishak and N. R. Mohamad Idris

Perceived Behavioral Control

The third variable of the TPB is perceived behavioral control (PBC). It refers to individual
perception regarding the ease or difficulty of carrying out a particular. This variable is
defined as the resources and opportunities available to the subject that enable the
execution of a behavior or the presence of factors that may facilitate or impede
performance of the behavior (Ajzen, 1991). In the meanwhile, Lin, H.F. (2007) describes
behavioral control as consumers’ perceptions of the availability of knowledge, resources
and opportunities necessary for using online shopping. Research study by Hsieh and Liao
(2011) found that PBC has a significant influence on the individual’s shopping online
behavior. Moreover, in the context of online shopping, behavior control would have a
positive effect on intention if consumers are not fearful of the opportunistic behavior of a
web retailer (Delafrooz et al., 2010). Thus, hypothesis is proposed as below:
H3: There is positive and significant effect of perceived behavioral control on online
purchase intention.

Figure 1. Research model.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A convenience sampling method was conducted among the visitors of three main
shopping malls in Kuantan, Pahang. This sampling method was chosen because of
unavailability of number of visitors at these shopping mall. Researchers can meet various
background of visitors here since Kuantan is a favorite place among people from Pahang,
Terengganu and Kuala Lumpur. This can avoid bias for surveying the respondents from
same background. This study use GPower 3.1 software to calculate the minimum sample
size required (Faul et al., 2007). With ATT, SN and PBC as predictors, medium effect
size and power was set at 80% (Gefen et al., 2011), the minimum sample size required to
test this model is 77. Total number of respondents in this study is 118 and enough to test
the research model.

Research instrument was adapted from previous study by Pavlou and Fygenson
(2006) and Vania (2012). The Likert scale of 1 to 5 (scale 5 is strongly agree and 1 is
strongly disagree) was used to gauge the respondents’ level of agreement with the items
in the questionnaire. The questionnaire is divided into two sections in which the first
section for respondent’s profile and the second section for answering the research

16

W. M. Wan Ishak and N. R. Mohamad Idris

questions and objectives. In all, there were 4 construct and 19 measurement items. Three
of them were independent variables of purchasing intention, which were attitude,
subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. The dependent variable was intention
to purchase online.

DATA ANALYSIS

Data collected was then analyzed using descriptive analysis and Partial Least
Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approaches available in SPSS
Statistics and SmartPLS 3.2.8 respectively. The hypothesized relationships was tested
using PLS-SEM to examine the relationship between independent variables and
dependent variable. Moreover, PLS-SEM was chosen because of data is non-normal
(Ringle et al., 2015). Below are the findings and discussion of the results.

Demographic Analysis

The results of demographic analysis are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Demographic results.

Profile Sub-profile Frequency Percentage (%)
Gender Male 54 45.8
Race Female 64 54.2
Malay 63 53.4
Age 23 19.5
Chinese 20 16.9
Indian 12 10.2
Others 62 52.5
18-25 40 33.9
26-35 13 11
36-45 3 2.5
46 and above

Majority of the respondents are female (54.2%). The study respondents
constituted Malay (53.4%), Chinese (19.5%), Indian (16.9%) and others (10.2%)
respectively. Majority of the respondents are among 18-25 years old (52.5%). The
remaining are 26-35 years old (33.9%) and only 13.5% among them are more than 36
years old.

This section also represents the respondents based on their online shopping
experience. Table 2 shown the average time spent by the respondents to surf on online
purchase platforms per session.

Table 2. Average time spent per session.

Time Frequency Percentage (%)
1-2 hours 47 39.8
2-3 hours 50 42.4
4-6 hours 11 9.3
More than 6 hours 10 8.5

17

W. M. Wan Ishak and N. R. Mohamad Idris

As shown in above table, 39.8% of the respondents spent 1-2 hours per session,
42.4% spent 2-3 hours per session and the rest 17.8% spent more than 4 hours per session
in online purchase platforms.

Table 3. Average spending (RM) per online session.

Spending Frequency Percentage (%)
Less than RM100 40 33.9
RM101-RM200 42 35.6
RM201-RM300 20 16.9
RM301 and above 16 13.6

As shown in Table 3, most of the respondents spent between RM101-RM200
(35.6%) for online purchase. This followed by spending less than RM100 (33.9%). In the
meanwhile, 16.9% spent between RM201-RM300 and only 13.6% spent above RM300
per online session.

Result of Measurement Model

The two-step data approach was adopted to test the hypothesis generated through
reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988).
Validity assesses the degree to which a measurement represents and logically connects
the observed phenomenon to the construct, whereas reliability was intended to test on
how consistent the instruments measures any concepts that is used to measure (Sekaran
& Bougie, 2010). Construct validity can be observed through loading and cross-loading.
According to Hair et al. (2010), the minimum value of 0.5 is considered significant. Item
for Att2, Att3 and PBC3 were deleted since their loading were not sufficient. Table 4
below shows all of the constructs have item loadings higher than the minimum value.

Convergent validity used to measure the degree to which multiple items to
measure the same variable. Through average variance extracted (AVEs) with minimum
loading of 0.5 and composite reliability (CR) minimum of 0.70 (Hair et al., 2010), this
study have adequate convergent validity.

Table 4. Convergent validity.

Variable Loadings Composite Average
Attitude reliability variance
Intention ATT1 0.853 extracted
ATT4 0.806 (CR) (AVE)
ATT5 0.712
INT1 0.841 0.834 0.628
INT2 0.761
INT3 0.853 0.881 0.600
INT4 0.730
INT5 0.671

18

W. M. Wan Ishak and N. R. Mohamad Idris

Perceived behavioural PBC1 0.776 0.820 0.605
control 0.883 0.602
PBC2 0.868
Subjective norm PBC4 0.679
SN1 0.723
SN2 0.821
SN3 0.806
SN4 0.815
SN5 0.705

The next step is to measure discriminant validity. Discriminant validity was
achieved since the square root of the AVEs (in the diagonal) are greater than their
respective inter-construct correlations as in Table 5 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Table 5. Discriminant validity.

Variable Attitude Intention Perceived Subjective
behavioural norm
Attitude 0.793 control
Intention 0.486 0.776
Perceived behavioural 0.622 0.774 0.778
control 0.569
Subjective norm 0.385
0.520 0.454

Evaluation of Structural Model

Nonparametric bootstrapping was applied to test the structural model as in Fig. 1. The

analysis for the hypothesis is performed using bootstrapping method with 500 replications

(Wetzels et al., 2009). Results shown in Table 6 indicates that two hypothesis (H2, H3)
were supported; Subjective Norm (β = 0.309, t = 2.795, P < 0.01), Perceived Behavioral
Control (β = 0.327, t = 3.433, P < 0.01). Another hypothesis, H1 was not supported, with
β = 0.163 and t-value 1.628. Hence, it is concluded that subjective norm (SN) and

perceived behavioral control (PBC) have positive relationship with the intention to online

purchase.

Table 6. Hypothesis testing.

Hypothesis Beta Se T value Decision
H1 Attitude -> Intention 0.163 0.100 1.628 Unsupported
H2 Subjective norm -> 0.309 0.090 **2.795 Supported

Intention 0.327 0.117 **3.433 Supported
H3 Perceived behavioural

control -> Intention

19

W. M. Wan Ishak and N. R. Mohamad Idris

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The principle purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence online
shopping behavior intention. Through the use of PLS-SEM analysis, the result showed
that subjective norm and perceived behavioral control are significant towards the online
shopping behavior intention. This result is in line with the earlier study by Cheng & Yee
(2014) who found that subjective norm is the most powerful predicting factor that may
influence online purchase intention. Customers commonly believe in the opinion of
experts. Opinion from experts can be placed in website because customers are seeking for
testimonials and reviews. This is in line with the study done by Orapin (2009) who found
that subjective norm influence significantly the intention to shop online. People around
us can influence our decision. Results from the study by Abdullah et al. (2012) also
confirms the positive significant effect of subjective norm on the online shopping
behavior intention. This confirm the importance of subjective norm in explaining online
shopping behavior in the light of the TPB.

Perceived behavioral control has been found to have positive relationship with
online purchase behavior intention. This finding supported by other findings mentioned
in literatures. Study conducted among MBA students in University Utara Malaysia
(UUM) found that perceived behavioral control is the most predictive factor to online
shopping (Abdullah et al., 2012). Study by Orapin (2009) among graduates in four major
universities in Thailand also conclude that perceived behavioral control is the most
influencing factor towards internet shopping.

On the other hand, attitude has found as not a significant factor towards online
shopping behavior intention. Attitude refer to the degree to which a person has favorable
or unfavorable evaluation towards online shopping. Study by Orapin (2009) found that
attitude doesn’t affect much on the intention to shop online. The fear of losing money and
insecure feelings in disclosure of financial details have negative effect on attitude towards
online shopping. The information given about the product in the website also can
influence buyers whether to proceed with online purchase or not. People will go to the
web and make comparison (Islam, 2015). Lack of confidence about data security
influences the consumers’ attitude and intention towards online shopping. Even some
consumers are still looking for the extra advantages of online purchasing.

CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, this research examine the factors influencing Malaysian online shoppers’
purchasing intention. The findings will be useful and provides knowledge to sellers or
manufacturers. The results indicate that subjective norm and perceived behavioural
control have positive relationship and influence customer’s intention to involve actively
in online shopping. In conclusion, H2 (subjective norm) and H3 (perceived behavioural
control) were supported. In the meanwhile, H1 (attitude) was not supported.

This study has certain limitations. Since this study conducted in capital city of Pahang,
future study should consider to expand the study to other main city in Malaysia especially
in south and north region. This research also only examine three factors that influence
online purchasing behaviour intention. Future research can study on other factors,

20

W. M. Wan Ishak and N. R. Mohamad Idris

therefore it can help to understand other factors that may influence and important in online
purchase scenario.

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22

SA Conference Proceeding: Industrial Revolution 4.0 Vol.1, Issue 01 (2020) 23-28
International Innovation Technology Exhibition & Conferences 2019 (Itec’19), September 24th - 25th 2019
Copyright © 2020 Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi MARA (KKTM) Kemaman
E-ISBN: 978-967-17985-0-8

Brine Shrimp Lethality Assay of Methanolic Extract of Orthosiphon Stamineus
Benth. Leaves

Nur Farah Amalina Mughni1, Fatin Fathiah Mohammad Yusop1

1Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi MARA Lenggong, Kg. Padang Luas,
Mukim Durian Pipit, 33400 Lenggong, Perak, Malaysia
*Email: [email protected]
Phone: +6057510007; Fax: +6057510006

ABSTRACT

The in vitro lethality of brine shrimp (BST), which is a simple tool for preliminary
assessment of toxicity where one of the simplest biological responses to observe is
lethality, since there is only one condition which are either dead or alive. The lethality of
the methanol extract of Orthosiphon stamineus leaf from 10 different locations were
subjected to brine shrimp after 24 h of exposure to the test solutions according to protocol
reported by Meyer et al. (1982). The extracts were found to show reaction and dose
dependent to toxicity on brine shrimp nauplii and the LC50 value of KBPP, TPPM,
HLSM, SUMM,PPKM and DSJM were found to be 223.95 µg/ml, 252.04 µg/ml, 305.46
µg/ml, 323.47µg/ml, 291.00 µg/ml and 281.90 µg/ml respectively. The other four
locations which are PTNS, SNNS, SKTM and CJPM were found to be 163.90 µg/ml,
130.06 µg/ml, 106.09µg/ml and 123.26 µg/ml respectively. This result revealed that these
four locations gave positive results because about 50% of species presented positive
results when LC50 <200µg/ml. A methanolic extract of this plant demonstrates moderate
or low toxic activity against brine shrimp nauplii.

Keywords: Brine shimp letahlity, Orthosiphon stamineus

INTRODUCTION

Based on the statistics carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO), 80% of the
world population prefers to choose herbs as medicine to treat ailments. Herbal medicine
in particular is the main ingredients in traditional medical methods and common element
in homeopathy, Ayurveda, Chinese medicine and some other alternative healing methods.
WHO also states that about 119 medical substances are extracted from various plants and
74% of them are still used in exactly the same way these herbs were used in the past. Up
to date, the extracted substances from herbs have become the basis of the manufactured
medication for diseases including those with cardiovascular problems, asthmas and
hypertensions (WHO, 1998).

Orthosiphon stamineus Benth which is also known as “Misai Kucing” is a genus in the
family of Lamiaceae. “Misai Kucing” plant is an herbal species originated from South-
East Asia regions. In traditional medicine, folks believe that Orthosiphon stamineus
possesses diuretic properties, antiallergic, anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive and
antitumor. It is also used to treat diabetes, rheumatism and gout (Burkhill, 1966).
In this study, the leaves of Orthosiphon stamineus Benth plant from different locations
were studied. This plant is locally known as “Misai kucing” or literally cat’s whiskers

Mughni, N. F. A., and Mohammad Yusop, F.F.

because of its unique flower which resembles cat’s whiskers. All parts of this plant
possess therapeutic properties such as the leaves of the plant are believed to contain
antioxidant property (Akowuah et al.,2005; Khamsah et al.,2006; Yam et al.,2007), anti-
inflammatory property (Yam et al.,2008) and diuretic property (Arafat et al., 2008).

Brine shrimp is an aquatic crustacean of genus, class of branchiopoda and it is order of
anostraca. Brine shrimp can be found worldwide in water ranging from brackish to the
ultrasaline. The eggs of brine shrimp almost 0.2 mm in diameter and can be stored for
longer periods as long as it remains dehydration. When eggs of the brine shrimp were
added to saline solutions, eggs will adsorb the water and embryogenesis process occurs.
This process occurs between 16 to 36 hours. Then, the embryo will develop antennae and
mandibles, breaks away from the hatching membrane and become a lively and free-
swimming nauplius (Asem et al., 2010).

Meyer et al.,1982 has developed the in vitro lethality of brine shrimp (BST), which is a
simple tool for preliminary assessment of toxicity where one of the simplest biological
responses to observe is lethality, since there is only one condition which are either dead
or alive (Montanher et al., 2002). This bioassay also provides the forefront screen than
can be backed up with a more detailed assay once the active compound has been isolated.
BST is competent, fast and low-cost assessments that need just a quite small amount
samples. The method is easily understood and uses small amounts of analyzing the
content (Pisutthanan et al., 2013). It appears that BSLT is predictive of cytotoxicity and
pesticidal activity (Ghisalberti, 1993).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Plant materials

Orthosiphon stamineus leaves from KBPM; Kepala Batas (Pulau Pinang),CJPM;
Changkat Jering (Perak), DSJM; Desaru (Johor), and SUMM; Sungai Udang (Melaka)
were obtained from herbal suppliers. Leaves were also collected from nursery, hillside
and garden in SKTM; Sungai Kok (Terengganu), HLSM; Hulu Langat (Selangor),
PPKM; Paser Putih (Kelantan), TPPM; Taiping (Perak), PNSM; Pantai (Negeri
Sembilan) and SNSM; Sendayan (Negeri Sembilan). A voucher specimen (no. 11469)
was deposited at the herbarium of School of Biological Sciences, University Sains
Malaysia.

Extraction

Methanol extract was used for this study. The Orthosiphon stamineus leaves were washed
with water, sliced and dried in the oven for 3 days at 55oC. The dried samples were
ground and extracted with methanol for 5 days. The pooled methanol extracts were
evaporated using a rotary evaporator.

Fifty grams of leaf powder from each place of the plant was extracted by 500 millilitres
of methanol at 40oC using maceration technique. The extracts were then filtered and dried
using a rotary evaporator.

24

Mughni, N. F. A., and Mohammad Yusop, F.F.

Hatching the Brine Shrimp

Brine shrimp lethality bioassay is commonly used in the bioassay for the bioactive
compounds (Meyer et al., 1982). Artemia salina was applied as a practical observation
for screening. 1.0 g of the brine shrimp’s eggs were obtained and hatched in filter sea
water for 48 h to mature shrimp called nauplii.

Bioassay

The toxicity analysis was conducted on brine shrimp nauplii using Meyer method.
Exactly 10 mg of crude extract was dissolved in 10 ml of methanol and the mixture was
sonicated to ensure homogeneity of the extract in the solvent.

Next, 5000 µl, 2500 µl, 1250 µl, 625 µl, 312.5 µl and 156.25 µl of this solution were
transferred into separate vials. The solvent in the vials was evaporated to dryness in a
fume hood and 5.0 ml of seawater was added to each of the vial to give final
concentrations of 1000 μg/ml, 500 μg/ml, 250 µg/ml, 125 µg/ml, 62.5 µg/ml and
31.25µg/ml of the sample, respectively. For the bioassay, 10 brine shrimp larvae were
introduced into the test tubes. After 24 hours, the numbers of surviving shrimps at each
concentration of the extracts were examined to determine the LC50 values of the samples.
A control was prepared at the same time using seawater without addition of extract.

Positive control in a toxicity study is a commonly approved toxicity agent and caused by
the test agent is in contrast to the outcome for the positive control. In the present study
potassium dichromate was used as positive control. Potassium dichromate was analysed
at very low concentration (40, 10, 5, 1.25, 0.625, 0.313, 0.156, 0.078 μg/ml) (Mclaughlin
et al., 1993; Meyer et al., 2007).

After 24 hours, the tubes were inspected and the surviving nauplii in each tube were
counted. The lethal concentrations of the sample resulting in 50% mortality of the brine
shrimp (LC50).

Calculation

The mortality endpoint of this bioassay is defined as the absence of controlled forward
motion during 30 second of observation. The percent of lethality of the nauplii for each
concentration and control was calculated. For each tube, count the number of dead and
number of live nauplii, and determine the % death.

Statistical Analysis
The percentage lethality was calculated from the mean survival larvae of extracts treated
tubes and control. LC50 values were obtained by best-fit line method.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The brine shrimp lethality bioassay has been used regularly in preliminary screening to
detect toxicity of the test sample extracts towards brine shrimp nauplii, which also offer
an indicator of possible toxicity properties of the analyze materials. The lethality of the
methanol extract of Orthosiphon stamineus leaf from 10 different locations were

25

Mughni, N. F. A., and Mohammad Yusop, F.F.

subjected to brine shrimp after 24 hours of exposure to the test solutions according to
protocol reported by Meyer et al. (1982).

The methanol extract of ten different locations showed lethality against brine shrimp. The
result of the toxicity screening of O. stamineus (% mortality at different concentrations
and LC50 values) were tabulated in the Table 1. The value of LC50 higher indicates the
lower of the toxicity in the test sample.

Brine shrimp lethality bioassay, the test sample extract from six locations showed
LC50>200µg/ml, which revealed that the extract is pharmacologically inactive (Anderson
et al., 1991) and suggest that these samples are practically non-toxic. The extracts were
found to show reaction and dose dependent to toxicity on brine shrimp nauplii and the
LC50 (table 1) value of KBPP, TPPM, HLSM, SUMM,PPKM and DSJM were found to
be 223.95 µg/ml, 252.04 µg/ml, 305.46 µg/ml, 323.47µg/ml, 291.00 µg/ml and 281.90
µg/ml respectively. The other four locations which are PTNS, SNNS, SKTM and CJPM
were found to be 163.90 µg/ml, 130.06 µg/ml, 106.09µg/ml and 123.26 µg/ml
respectively. This result revealed that these four locations gave positive results because
about 50% of species presented positive results when LC50 <200µg/ml. However, Serano
et al. (1996) considered this value as low.

Table 1: Brine Shrimp lethality data assay. All data are presented as Mean +SD, n=2

Plant Regression line LC50 (µg/ml)
KBPP y= 76.778x – 130.44 223.95+ 5.30

R2= 0.8613

TPPM y= 73.026x - 125.37 252.04+ 3.22

R2= 0.9134

PTNS y= 61.559x – 86.327 163.90+ 0.16

R2= 0.959

SDNS y= 65.353x – 88.166 130.06+ 0.49

R2= 0.8957

HLSM y= 61.663x – 103.23 305.46+ 1.13

R2= 0.8597

SKTM y= 54.012x – 59.41 106.09+ 1.45

R2= 0.9905

SUMM y= 55.94x – 90.4 323.47+ 4.43

R2= 0.9301

PPKM y= 63.592x – 104.22 291.00+ 4.39

R2= 0.9342

CJPM y= 66.286x – 88.591 123.25+ 0.50

R2= 0.8520

DSJM y= 55.982x – 87.161 281.90+ 4.60

R2= 0.8768

KBPP:KepalaBatas,Penang;TPPM:Taiping,Perak; PNSM:Pantai,Negeri Sembilan; SNSM: Sendayan
Negeri Sembilan; HLSM: Hulu Langat, Selangor;SKTM: Sungai Kok, Terengganu;SUMM: Sungai
Udang,Melaka; PPKM: Pasir Puteh,Kelantan;CJPK:ChangkatJering,Perak;DSJM: Desaru,Johor

26

Mughni, N. F. A., and Mohammad Yusop, F.F.

A methanolic extract of this plant demonstrates low or nontoxic activity against brine
shrimp nauplii which may be due to the fact that chemical compounds present in the
methanol extract of Orthosiphon stamineus leaf is less or not toxic. In general,
polyphenols are the most important compound present in the Orthosiphon stamineus
Benth leaf such as polymethoxylated flavonoids and caffeic acid derivatives. Yanez et al.
(2004) proved that the cytotoxicity of the polyphenols assayed was moderate or null on
Melan-a. This study is supported by other study by Kuntz et al. (1999) which studied the
effect of 36 flavonoids on 2 colon cancer cell lines (HT-29 and Caco-2), concluding that
almost all flavonoids which have been studied had an antiproliferative effect and showed
no cytotoxicity. In another study, the low cytotoxicity of 4-methoxylated flavones was
demonstrated and compound had an antiproliferative effect on 2 animal tumor cells (LLC-
MK2 and C6).

Han (2007) evaluated the possible toxic effect after following fourteen days oral
administration of methanol extract of Orthosiphon stamineus in female Sprague Dawley
(SD) rats. This study revealed that LD50 was shown to be higher than 5g/kg due as no
lethality occurred in the younger female SD rats, which is considered as practically
nontoxic. This study concludes that the methanol extract of Orthosiphon stamineus seems
to be deficient toxic effect which can compromise the medicinal uses of this plant in
herbal medicine.

Brine shrimp lethality bioassay can be done on other pharmacological activities beside
cytotoxicity such as antimicrobial, pesticide and antitumor activities of the compounds
(Meyer et al., 1982). A number of novel antitumor and pesticidal natural products have
been isolated using brine shrimp lethality bioassay (Meyer et al., 1982).

CONCLUSION

The extracts were found to show reaction and dose dependent to toxicity on brine shrimp
nauplii and the LC50 value of KBPP, TPPM, HLSM, SUMM,PPKM and DSJM were
found to be 223.95 µg/ml, 252.04 µg/ml, 305.46 µg/ml, 323.47µg/ml, 291.00 µg/ml and
281.90 µg/ml respectively. The other four locations which are PTNS, SNNS, SKTM and
CJPM were found to be 163.90 µg/ml, 130.06 µg/ml, 106.09µg/ml and 123.26 µg/ml
respectively. This result revealed that these four locations gave positive results because
about 50% of species presented positive results when LC50 <200µg/ml. A methanolic
extract of Orthosiphon stamineus leaves from different locations demonstrated moderate
or low toxicity activity against brine shrimp nauplii which may due to the fact that the
major chemical compounds present in the methanol extract of this plant are less or not
toxic.

REFERENCES

[1] Akowuah, G., Ismail, Z., Norhayati, I., and Sadikun, A. The effects of different
extraction solvents of varying polarities on polyphenols of Orthosiphon stamineus
and evaluation of the free radical-scavenging activity. Food Chemistry, 2005;93(2),
311-317.

27

Mughni, N. F. A., and Mohammad Yusop, F.F.

[2] Anderson, J., Goetz, C., McLaughlin, J., and Suffness, M. A blind comparison of
simple bench‐top bioassays and human tumour cell cytotoxicities as antitumor
prescreens. Phytochemical Analysis,1991; 2(3), 107-111.

[3] Asem, A., Nasrullah, R. P., and Patricio, D. L. R. E. The genus Artemia leach, 1819
(Crustacea: Branchiopoda). Latin American Journal of Aquatic Research,2010; 38(3):
501-506.

[4] Arafat, O., Tham, S., Sadikun, A., Ismail, Z., Haughton, P., and Asmawi, M. Studies
on diuretic and hypouricemic effects of Orthosiphon stamineus methanol extracts in
rats. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2008; 118(3), 354-360.

[5] Burkhill, I. H. A Dictionary of the Economic Product of the Peninsula. Kuala Lumpur:
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative.1996.

[6] Han, Q. B., Qiao, C. F., Song, J. Z., Yang, N. Y., Cao, X. W., Peng, Y., Yang, D. J.,
Chen, S. L., and Xu, H. X. Cytotoxicity prenylated phenolic compounds from the twig
Bark of Gercinia xanthochymus. Chemistry and Biodiversity,2007; 4, 940-946.

[7] Khamsah, S., Akowah, G., and Ismail, Z. Antioxidant activity and phenolic content
of Orthosiphon stamineus benth from different geographical origin. Journal of
Sustainability Science and Management, 2006; 1(2), 14-20.

[8] Kuntz, S., Wenzel, U., and Daniel, H. Comparative analysis of the effects of
flavonoids on proliferation, cytotoxicity, and apoptosis in human colon cancer cell
lines. European Journal of Nutrition, 1999; 38(3), 133-142.

[9] Mclaughlin, J. L., Chang, C. J., and Smith, D. L. Simple bench-top bioassays (brine
shrimp and potato discs) for the discovery of plant antitumor compounds. Plant
Medica, 1993; 123-174.

[10] Meyer, B., Ferrigni, N., Putnam, J., Jacobsen, L., Nichols, D. J., and McLaughlin, J.
Brine shrimp: a convenient general bioassay for active plant constituents. Planta
Medica, 2007; 45(05), 31-34.

[11] Montanher, A. B. P., Pizolatti, M., and Brighente, I. M. C. An application of the brine
shrimp bioassay for general screening of brazilian medicinal plants. ACTA
Farmaceutical Bonaerense, 2002; 21, 175-178.

[12] Pisutthanan, S., Plianbangchang, P., Pisutthanan, N., Ruanruay, S., & Muanrit, O.
Brine shrimp lethality activity of Thai medicinal plants in the family Meliaceae.
Naresuan University Journal: Science and Technology (NUJST), 2013; 12(2), 13-18.

[13] Serrano, C., Ortega, T., and Villar, A. A biological activity of traditional medicines
from Spain and Guatermala Artemis salina bioassays: A revision. Phytotherapy
Research, 1996; 10, S118- S120.

[14] WHO. Quality Control Methods for Medicinal Plant Materials. Geneva: World
Health Organization; 1998.

[15] Yam, M. F., Basir, R., Asmawi, M. Z., and Ismail, Z. Antioxidant and
hepatoprotective effects of Orthosiphon stamineus Benth. The American Journal of
Chinese Medicine, 2007; 35(01), 115-126.

[16] Yam, M. F., Asmawi, M. Z., and Basir, R. An investigation of the anti-inflammatory
and analgesic effects of Orthosiphon stamineus leaf extract. Journal of Medicinal
Food, 2008; 11(2), 362-368.

28

SA Conference Proceeding: Industrial Revolution 4.0 Vol.1, Issue 01 (2020) 29-37
International Innovation Technology Exhibition & Conferences 2019 (Itec’19), September 24th - 25th 2019
Copyright © 2020 Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi MARA (KKTM) Kemaman
E-ISBN: 978-967-17985-0-8

The Investigation of Cinnamon Leaf Oil Nanocream for Antimicrobial and Skin
Irritation

Nor Azah Zainol1,*, Yusrida Darwis2 and Nor Asfaliza Abdullah3

1MARA Higher Vocational College, Mukim Durian Pipit, 33400 Lenggong, Perak,
Malaysia

2Discipline of Pharmaceutical Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang,
Malaysia.

3Faculty of Agro-Based Industry, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jeli Campus, 17600
Jeli, Kelantan, Malaysia.

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Cinnamon leaf oil contains a high amount of eugenol which has been reported to have
antimicrobial activity. The aims of this study were to test the antimicrobial and primary
skin irritation activities of 2% cinnamon leaf oil nanocream. The antimicrobial activity of
the nanocream was tested in vitro against different gram positive and gram negative
bacterial strains whereas primary skin irritation activity was studied in vivo using New
Zealand White rabbits. The microbiological test revealed that the 2% cinnamon leaf oil
nanocream inhibited the growth of gram positive (Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus
aureous, Methicilline-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis) and gram
negative bacteria (Klebsiella pneumonia, and Escherichia coli) except Pseudomonas
aeruginosa. Moreover, the irritation test showed that the nanocream was non-irritant.
Therefore, the results of the present study suggested that the 2% cinnamon leaf oil
nanocream has great potential to be used as a topical antiseptic and not give any irritant
to the people

Keywords: Cinnamon leaf oil, Nanocream, Antimicrobial, Primary skin irritation.

INTRODUCTION

Eugenol is the major component of cinnamon leaf oil. This compound has been
reported to have anti-oxidant (Brever et al., 2011), anti-carminative, anti-spasmodic,
antiseptic and anti-microbial activities (Gopu et al., 2008 & Myint et al., 1995). The oil
obtained from cinnamon leaves and cloves strongly inhibits the growth of standard strains
of Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes,
Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus pyogenes, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis,
Bacillus brevis), and Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Yersinia enterocolitica,
Salmonella choleraesuis, Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris,
Pseudomonas aeruginosa) due to the high content of eugenol (Qiu et al., 2010 &
Sienkiewicz et al., 2011). The skin plays a significant role in prevention of microbial
infection (Bowler et al., 2001). The external surface of mature skin is colonized by a
number of ‘culturable’ micro-organisms (Percival et al., 2011). When skin is broken, the
underlying tissue is uncovered and exposed to the environment, thus increasing the risk
of microbial infection. Wounds happen due to physical or chemical injury or microbial

Zainol., N. A et al.

infection of the skin and the healing process has been reported to be accelerated by the
application of several drugs obtained from plant sources (Farahpour et al., 2012). The
processes involved in wound healing are contraction, epithelization, granulation,
collagenation, collagen maturation and scar maturation (Sharma et al., 2010).

Nowadays, dermatological products especially those containing herbs, essential
oils or other natural ingredients have been increasingly accepted. Cinnamon leaf oil is
one of the essential oils that has many benefits such as stopping bleeding which may help
in the wound healing process. However, cinnamon leaf oil may cause irritation if applied
directly onto the skin. Therefore, in this study, the cinnamon leaf oil was formulated in a
form of nanocream and the preparation was evaluated in vitro for antimicrobial activity
against gram positive and gram negative bacteria. Primary skin irritation test was also
studied using rabbits.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Materials
Palm oil (Seri Murni) was purchased from a local hypermarket (Malaysia), polysorbate
80 (Tween 80), cetostearyl alcohol and cinnamon leaf oil were purchased from Euro
Chemo-Pharma Sdn Bhd (Malaysia), sorbitan tristearate (Span 65) was purchased from
Fluka (USA), propyl paraben, methyl paraben, carbitol, sodium citrate and citric acid
were purchased from R & M Chemicals (UK). Pentobarbitone sodium was supplied by
Rhone Merieux (Ireland). Muller Hinton agar was purchased from Himedia (India).
Bactroban (mupirocin 2%) and neomycin (0.5%) cream were purchased from a local
pharmacy (Malaysia).

Bacterial Strains
Gram positive: Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus or MSSA (ATCC 25923),
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA (ATCC 33591), Bacillus subtilis
(ATCC 6633). Gram negative: Klebsiella pneumonia (ATCC 13883), Escherichia coli
(ATCC 25922), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853). All bacterial strains were
purchased from Bio-Focus Scientific (Malaysia). section must be in one column.

Preparation of Cinnamon Leaf Oil Nanocream
The oil phase (cetostearyl alcohol, cinnamon leaf oil, palm oil, span 65 and propyl
paraben) was heated in a water bath at 55⁰ C while the water phase (Tween 80, citrate
buffer pH 5.5 and methyl paraben) was heated separately at the same temperature for 30
minutes. The mixtures were stirred separately at 350 r.p.m using a magnetic stirrer. Then,
the oil phase was dispersed in the water phase and mixed using a magnetic stirrer at 350
r.p.m with the aid of a spatula to overcome the liquid crystalline phase. After a while, the
mixture was stirred at 1500 r.p.m for 30 minutes. Finally, the mixture was homogenized
using T25 Ultra-Turrax (IKA, USA) at 19,100 r.p.m for 2 minutes or 4 cycles (1 cycle =
30 second homogenization and 30 second rest) and the preparation was left to cool to
room temperature before further characterization.

Antimicrobial Test using Nathan’s Agar Well Diffusion Assay
Susceptibility of gram negative and gram positive bacteria to topical antimicrobial agents
was tested using Nathan’s agar well diffusion (NAWD) assay. The surface of 5 mm thick

30

Zainol., N. A et al.

Mueller Hinton agar plates was inoculated with a 100-fold dilution of 0.5 Mc Farland
(108 CFU/ml) log-phase cultures of the respective bacterial strain. Then, 6 mm diameter
holes were made in the agar plates using a sterilized die cutter. The wells were loaded
with the topical agent. The diameter of the zone of inhibition was measured after 18 hours
of incubation at 37°C.

Primary skin irritation test
The study protocol was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of the School of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Three New Zealand white rabbits
were used in this study. First, the New Zealand white rabbits’ fur were removed 24 hours
before the test by closely clipping the dorsal area of the trunk of the animals. Then, the
shaved area was divided into two marked circular areas of approximately 6 cm diameter
each. The skin irritation test was conducted by applying 0.5 g of 2% cinnamon leaf oil
nanocream and nanocream base respectively on the two marked areas on the rabbits’ skin.
The marked areas on the rabbits’ skin were covered with a gauze patch for an exposure
period of 4 hours. During the test, the rabbits were placed in restrainer boxes. After 4
hours, the gauze patch was removed. The residual test substance in the test area was
washed with water and then the rabbits were examined for signs of erythema and oedema
within 30-60 min, and at 24, 48 and 72 hours after patch removal. Dermal irritation was
scored and recorded according to the grades shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Grading Of Skin Irritation.

Erythema and Eschar formation Score

No erythema 0
1
Very slight erythema 2
3
Well defined erythema 4
Moderate to severe erytherma
Severe erytherma (beef redness) to eschar 0
formation preventing grading of 1
2
erythema 3
4
Oedema formation

No oedema
Very slight oedema (barely perceptible)

Slight oedema (edges of area well
defined by definite raising)

Moderate oedema (raised approximately
1mm)

Severe oedema (raised more than 1mm
and extending beyond area of exposure)

31

Zainol., N. A et al.

Total erythema grade at 30 min, 24 hrs, 48 hrs, 72 hrs +

Total oedema grade at 30 min, 24 hrs, 48 hrs, 72 hrs ( 1)
Number of animals

PII = [Total average scores (test) − Total avarage scores (base)] ( 2)

Number of Animals

Table 2: Response Categories of Primary Skin Irritation Index after Applying
Nanocream to Rabbits

Category Primary Irritation Index

Negligible 0-0.4

Slight irritation 0.5-1.9

Moderate irritation 2-4.9

Severe irritation 5-8

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Antimicrobial test using Nathan’s agar well diffusion assay
Inhibition zones were categorized based on Rosco Diagnostica user’s guide for Neo-
Sensitabs, 2005/2006 where inhibition zone diameter of ≥20 mm was classified as
susceptible, 17 to 19 mm was intermediate and ≤16 mm was resistant [16]. Fig. 1 and
Table 3 show that MRSA and MSSA are fully susceptible to mupirocin cream with
inhibition zone sizes of 40 mm and 41 mm. In contrast, neomycin cream was only active
against MSSA but not active against MRSA. Cinnamon leaf oil nanocream was found to
be most active against both MSSA and MRSA, though not as active as mupirocin cream.
Moreover, cinnamon leaf oil nanocream had a similar zone size of 19 mm for both MRSA
and MSSA which suggested that it had intermediate antimicrobial activity against
Stapylococcus aureus regardless of methicillin resistance. The results indicated that all
gram positive and gram negative bacteria tested were susceptible to cinnamon leaf oil
nanocream except P. aeruginosa, which was resistant. The inhibition zone sizes for all
the bacteria fell in the range of 17 mm-19 mm and the smallest inhibition zone of 14 mm
was observed for P. aeruginosa. As expected, nanocream base did not show any activity
against any of the gram positive or gram negative bacteria. This shows that the surfactants
used did not affect the antimicrobial activity of the cinnamon leaf oil in the formulated
nanocream.

32

Zainol., N. A et al.

Table 3: Results of Zone Inhibition Produced by Cream Formulations against Gram
Positive and Gram Negative Bacteria.

Bacteria strain Bactroban Neomycin Cinnamon Nanocream
MSSA ATCC 25923 (mupirocin) cream leaf oil base

cream 21±0.7mm nanocream 0±0.0mm
40±0.0mm 19±0.00mm

MRSA ATCC 33591 41±1.41mm 0±0.0mm 19±0.00mm 0±0.0mm

Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633 25.5±2.12mm 21±0.7mm 17±0.0mm 0±0.0mm

Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 18±0.0mm 18±0.0mm 17.5±0.7mm 0±0.0mm
13883 20.5±0.7mm 18.5±2.12mm 18±1.41mm 0±0.0mm
Escherichia coli ATCC 25922

Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 22±1.41mm 19±0.0mm 14±141mm 0±0.0mm
27853

Mean±SD, n=3

A) Methicillin-sensitive Staphyloccocus aureus B) Methicillin-resistant Staphyloccocus

(ATCC 25923) aureus (ATCC 33591)

C) Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 6633) D) Klebsiella pneumoniae (ATCC 13883)

33

Zainol., N. A et al.

E) Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) F) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853)

Figure. 1: A typical zone of inhibition produced by C.BASE: nanocream base, MUPI:
Mupirocin cream, NEO: Neomycin cream, CINNA:Cinnamon leaf oil nanocream against
A) Methicillin Sensitive Staphyloccocus aureus (ATCC 25923), B) Methicillin Resistant
Staphyloccocus aureus (ATCC 33591), C) Bacillus subtilis ( ATCC 6633), D) Klebsiella
pneumoniae (ATCC 13883), E) Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) and F) Pseudomonas
aeruginosa (ATCC 27853)

Primary Skin Irritation Test
The skin irritation scores after applying nanocream base and cinnamon leaf oil nanocream
to all rabbits are shown in Table 4. Neither oedema nor erythema resulted from the
application of either cream after 72 hours and all rabbits had an average Primary Irritation
Index (PII) scored 0. Based on categories listed in Table 3 [16], it is suggested that the
rabbits experience negligible skin irritation. According to More et al., and Soliman et
al.,[12,17], a primary irritant index (PII) < 2 indicates that the formulation is non-irritant
to human skin and safe to use. Thus, cinnamon leaf oil nanocream and nanocream base
were considered to be non-irritant and safe as their respective PII was < 2.

CONCLUSIONS

It can be concluded that cinnamon leaf oil nanocream has antimicrobial activity, is non-
irritant and promotes wound healing. Thus, cinnamon leaf oil nanocream may be suitable
as an antiseptic cream or for treatment of wounds and ulcers on the skin.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to thank Universiti Sains Malaysia for providing University
Research Grant (1001/PFarmasi/811285) to support this work. The author (Nor Azah
Zainol) gratefully acknowledges Majlis Amanah Rakyat for awarding of the scholarship.

34

Zainol., N. A et al.

Table 4: Score of Skin Irritation after Applying Nanocream Base and Cinnamon Leaf
Oil Nanocream to Rabbits

Rabbit Reaction Score of reaction
no

Nanocream base Cinnamon leaf oil nanocream

4 24 48 72 4 24 48 72
hours hours hours hours hours hours hours hours

R1 Erythema 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Oedema 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

R2 Erythema 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Oedema 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

R3 Erythema 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Oedema 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Primary Irritation 0.00±0.00 0.00±0.00
Index (PII)

Mean±SD, n=3

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[24]. James O, Victoria IA. Excision and incision wound healing potential of Saba floride
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37

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A Review on User Experience Models for the

Hearing-Impaired Mobile Applications

Normala Mohamad1,a), Nor Laily Hashim2,b)

1General Studies Department, Institut Kemahiran MARA Beseri, 02400 Beseri, Perlis, Malaysia
2 School of Computing, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 UUM, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia

a)[email protected]
b) [email protected]

Abstract. User experience (UX) is an important element that need exclusive attention. It is to ensure a successful mobile
application enjoyable which can affect user perceptions. Currently mobile applications for the hearing-impaired has increased
tremendously with the increase of the usage of mobile phones. However, UX evaluation model that best suits the evaluation
for mobile application for the hearing-impaired is rather very general. User experience of the mobile application for the
hearing-impaired is very limited that makes the evaluation more challenging and difficult. This study reviews the current UX
models provide evaluation guidelines for hearing impaired and UX dimensions used by researchers and discuss the trend for
future evaluation of mobile applications for hearing-impaired. This review help researcher to identify the dimensions to
construct a new model for UX evaluation among hearing-impaired children. Result shows that user experience for mobile
application for the hearing-impaired are limited. This study helps mobile developers and evaluators in evaluating mobile
application for the hearing-impaired.

INTRODUCTION

According to World Health Organization [1], hearing-impaired is a condition of lacking the power of hearing or
having impaired hearing. Hearing-impaired is loss of the ability to hear from one or both ears which can be
inherited or caused conditions during birth, infectious diseases and medications. Throughout this paper, the term
hearing-impaired is used to define people suffering from deafness and muteness. They face significant constraints
in communication between hearing people as they are less skilful in communicating verbally with the others
[2][3][4]. Sign language is a medium of communication for hearing-impaired which using a movement of hands,
eyes and communicate with iconic narration [5]. It is estimated that by 2050 over 900 million people will have
disabling hearing loss [1]. It shows that the hearing-impaired community has increased tremendously.
In Malaysia itself, hearing-impaired people are estimated to be 32,000 [3] and this number is increasing every
year. According to the Malaysia Welfare Department [6] statistic, as of the year 2018 the total number of disabled
people registered under hearing-impaired disability is 36,139 as shown in Table 1 below. According to the
Malaysia Statistic Department [7], anyone who ages below 18 years old are considered as children. Based on the
Table 1, the total number of hearing-impaired children is 5872.
Statistics show that almost 26.7 million smartphones in Malaysia are connected to the internet and the number
increasing time to time [8]. The usage of mobile phones is not restricted to only normal people, but as well as
among disabled people.

Table 1 Total hearing-impaired registered in Malaysia in 2018 (Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia)

Age Group Total People Registered

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Less than 6 years old 773
7 – 12 years old 2226
13 – 18 years old 2873
19 – 21 years old 1514
22 – 35 years old 8153
36 – 45 years old 5293
46 – 59 years old 7520
7787
Above 60 years old

Compatibility of mobile phones for easy communication is being studied continuously to enhance the UX for all
groups of people [9]. There are less studies conducted about the hearing-impaired children’s application. Most of
the studies reflect about the mobile application for hearing-impaired in general. Besides that, the applications are
developed to fulfil hearing-impaired children requirements but how about their experience whilst using the
applications. Increasing numbers of hearing-impaired children show the need to increase more valuable
application that give the great UX for this community. Thus, a UX evaluation needs to be conducted to ensure the
application developed for the hearing-impaired children is enjoyable.
Hearing-impaired children are proven have low achievement [10] in academic which four times slower than
normal children [11]. Thus, applications that address to cater this community should take this issue into
consideration rather than evaluating mobile applications in general. Therefore, the hearing-impaired children
requirement needs to be identified in generating an enjoyable application developed for them. Research to evaluate
UX for hearing-impaired mobile application is very limited and even isolated [12]. Current research in this domain
is basically conducted generally to collect subjective data instead of having a proper guideline and model in
assisting the evaluation.
Demand for applications are increasing as well as the rate of the rejection, even though applications are developed
with great expense and expectations. Reason for the wide rejection of applications is due to the lack of positive
UX and failure of the application to fulfil user needs. [13] define UX as a person’s perceptions and responses that
result from the use and/or anticipated use of a product, system or service. It also can be defined as user perception,
feels and review when they had been using any system or product. It may give positive or negative experience to
the users after interacting with the system / product. However, UX is a subjective response when it comes from
users’ perception before using an application, during using an application and after using an application in
achieving a specific goal [14][15]. As stated by [16], the concept of UX focuses rather on positive emotions and
emotional outcomes such as joy, fun and pride.

This paper aims to review previous studies on UX of mobile applications in identifying potential dimensions that

could be applied especially for hearing-impaired mobile application UX evaluation. This is because till to date,

there no UX model that has been developed to cater UX evaluation for mobile application for the hearing-impaired

children. Thus, this paper will contribute a comprehensive review of the last decade, studies on UX model in

general and specifically for mobile. This paper starts by presenting the background of the study followed by

methods used of the study in identifying dimensions for UX evaluation for hearing-impaired mobile application

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and come out with the result. Conclusion of thi paper was also discussed.

BACKGROUND

This section discusses about past studies related to user experience (UX) which evaluates the web and mobile
application. Existing dimension or factors for UX evaluation are also discussed widely in this section. Finally,
this section makes extensive ground for proposing a UX dimensions for hearing-impaired mobile application.
UX has been identified as the emotion or bonding between the application and users [14][15][17]. If UX is great,
then the more user will use that application. In addition, UX is a different part compared to usability [18], UX is
external judgments of users on the quality of a product/service, which is influenced by their expectations,
satisfaction, and experience while usability ensures that the user interfaces are easy to use and support users in
performing their tasks efficiently and effectively. In order to make the web access on mobile phones a success,
overall about user experience had been notified, not just usability of a web site [19]. Acceptability or acceptance
is close to user experience in the sense that it addresses more aspects than usability. According to [20], it covers
also usefulness, practical acceptability, and social acceptability.
UX is a result of a motivated action in a certain context [21]. The user’s previous experiences and expectations
influence the present experience, and the present experience leads to more experiences and modified expectations.
This research has the merit of showing how important user’s changing expectations are in user experience.
However, in another study by [16], they discuss the different approaches to user experience definitions where they
identified three elements in UX: a consequence of a user’s internal state, the characteristics of the designed system,
and the context within which the interaction occurs.

[22] used emotion, stimulation, identification, value & meaning, social connectedness, security & trust and
challenges in UX evaluation to evaluate needs, affect, and product itself. For [22], the identification dimension
addresses the human need to express one’s self through objects.
According to [23][24] seven dimensions were used in UX evaluation which are needs, functionality, interface,
device, operating system, task and environment. Need is to evaluate how much the users need the application, if
the application meets its functionality, whether it has an intuitive and interface, if the settings of the mobiles are
sufficient for using the application, if the speed meets the application requirements, if the user can perform other
tasks while using the application and finally whether the place where the user is in might interfere with the use of
the application.

However, [25] only stated usable, functionality and enjoyment as the dimensions for UX among children
compared to [26] who stated six dimensions on UX evaluation; attractiveness, perspicuity, efficiency,
dependability, stimulation and novelty. Attractiveness measures the general impression towards the products, or
specifically whether the user likes or dislikes the product. Efficiency measures users’ interface of the product.
User interface look organized or otherwise for user. Perspicuity measures users’ understandability or difficulty to
use the product either easy to get familiar with the product or not. Stimulation and novelty are two dimensions
which supported in [27] study beside another two are aesthetics and emotion. [27] stated four major elements on
UX evaluation in games. The aesthetics dimension describes about the beauty or attractiveness of the interface
something is perceived. Emotion is the main factor in UX [16] which describe about users’ feelings. The
stimulation dimension describes measures users’ excitement and interest when using the product like user feel

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International Innovation Technology Exhibition & Conferences 2019 (Itec’19), September 24th - 25th 2019
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E-ISBN: 978-967-17985-0-8

motivate with the novelty of application. The identification dimension indicates to what extent a certain product
allows the user to identify with it.
UX in Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) was studied by [28] and four dimensions had been evaluated through
the study were emotion/affect, challenges, identification and best practices. Emotion/affect is covered all emotions
that the participants during the experiment such as relaxing, inspiring, encouraging, exciting, unpleasant,
depressing, and boring. Challenges is about physical, mental, prototyping, user interface and technical.
Identification is to indicate extent the mobile application allows the user to identify with it.
On the other hand, seven dimensions decided by [29] in UX evaluation among person with disabilities. There are
useful, usable, credible, desirable, findable, accessible and valuable. Useful was evaluated through the content
which were fulfil user’s requirement and original. The mute application should be easy to understand for the user
would be evaluated for usable dimension. Trustworthiness the content of the application was evaluated under
credible dimension. Pictures and other visual elements were used to generate emotion and feelings evaluated
through desirable dimension and if the content understandable and easy to navigable, it was to evaluate the
findable dimension. Accessible be the most important dimension to evaluate for disabilities. Besides the
application at least gave some value to user’s life then user will use the application. Challenging issue for hearing-
impaired mobile application is to make them enjoyable and accessible [30]. Based on a review of the hearing-
impaired characteristics, some features should be considered important in conducting the UX evaluation.
Some guidelines had been introduced by [31] for experience evaluation among hearing impaired children. The
evaluation should organize in public area such their school and the test carried out with a group of children, not
individual. Beside the evaluation session is not more than 30 minutes while parents are not allowed to present
together with the children during the session. The instruction must be provided orally and with sign language.
Then, ask them to repeat the instruction because hearing-impaired children often say understand even it is not.
Carefully with the language used for written instruction if necessary, to ensure the children were understood.
Finally, ask their impressions.

METHODS

Theoretical study has been used as a method for this review. A broad range of study was required in many
different aspects of user experience design and evaluation. This includes identifying the dimensions of UX
evaluation for general, children and children with disabilities. In order to get good foundation of knowledge
and understanding of the requirements, development tools, strengths and weaknesses of the UX evaluation
model, this study reviews previous literature ideas, issues and articles related to user experience evaluation. The
following search string has been applied for this study:
 C1 (\user experience”) AND (\evaluation” OR \dimensions”)
 C2 (\deaf” OR \hearing impaired”)
 C3 (\Mobile” OR \Phone”) AND (\Application”)
Selected papers have been downloaded and sorted according to journal and conference proceeding. Table 2 shows
some types of journals/conference proceedings papers that been downloaded for review. Focus on the selected
papers is based on UX dimensions or factors related to interactive technology such as mobile application, games
and web application. Thus, the total downloaded paper was revised and analysis related to this study is 35 articles
as shown on Table 3.

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able 2 Journal and proceedings Publisher Description

Journals/Conferences Taylor and Francis Basically, on human relation with the system
elements qualitative and quantitative studies
International Journal of Human-Computer
Interaction Wiley-Blackwell International forum for peer-reviewed research
Journal of The Association for Information in information science.
Science and Technology (JASIST)
International Journal of Advanced Science and Information Coverage extends to all main-stream branches
Computer Science and Applications of computer science and related applications
(IJACSA)
International Journal on Advanced Science, Insight society The journal publishes state-of-art papers in
Engineering and Information Technology fundamental theory, experiments and
(IJASEIT) simulation, as well as applications, with a

Interacting with Computers Science Direct systematic proposed method, sufficient review
on previous works, expanded discussion and
Computers MDPI concise conclusion.
International Journal of Computer Inder Science Research in the field of Human-Computer
Applications in Technology (IJCAT) Interaction (HCI) - an increasingly crucial
discipline within the Computer, Information,
and Design Sciences.
Collection of articles on design, evaluation and
technology.

A computer science and electronics journal
related with Theoretical Informatics, Quantum

Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education jstor Computing, Software Testing, Computer
Association of Vision and digital.
Issues pertaining deaf

Challenges and effective interaction solution.

International Conference on Human- Computer Machinery
Computer Interaction (ACM)

ACM, IEEE International conference and proceedings were
presented and well discussed.
International Conference/Proceedings

Table 3 Journal and proceedings papers downloaded

Journal ‘07 ‘08 ‘09 ‘10 ‘11 ‘12 ‘13 ‘14 ‘15 ‘16 ‘17 ‘18

IJHCI 1
JASIST
IJACSA 1
IJASEIT
Interacting with Computers 1
Computers
IJCAT 1
Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education
ACM 11
IEEE
Total 1

1

1

2 41111 15111
2
1 11

44222118117

RESULT

UX models are conceptual view about the dimensions to be focused and should be tested to know the accuracy of
[32]. These will help in the UX evaluation to be conducted on an application. Based on the existing UX models,

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there are many dimensions that selected by previous researchers. However, some dimensions have similar
meaning on each other. Therefore, the dimensions had been concluded using one word which covered to others
because a successful evaluation starts with the selection of a set of factors or dimensions that want to evaluate [27].

Table 4 shows the UX model available in general and was adopted by many researchers from year 2010 till
to 2018 and the dimensions that were used. The selected dimensions are aesthetic, emotion/affect, stimulation and
identification because those items are used regularly by previous study. However, accessibility is selected for this
paper although only two previous study which stated the dimension as shown on table 4. It is to ensure that the
mobile application is accessible by the hearing-impaired children.

Table 4 UX Models in general

Model Aesthetic Emotion/affect UX Dimensions Used Accessibility
X Stimulation Identification
Hassenzahl et al. (2010) X X XX X
Read (2012) X X X X
Paula et al. (2014) X X X
Bernhaupt (2015) X XX
Ibrahim et al. (2015) X X XX
Yazid & Jantan (2017) X
Dirin & Laine (2018) X X X
Deshmukh (2018)

CONCLUSION

It is important that deficiency of studies in the hearing-impaired mobile application area should be advanced in
the future. This is not only to fulfil the need of an academician, but also for the hearing-impaired community
beneficial. Since they are being isolated from the community and difference between them from the normal
hearing people the deaf people tend to have lack of self-esteem and they prefer to move out from the community.

Thus, in accordance with the advancement of technology, mobile application, especially for hearing-impaired
need more consideration in the development. Difference between mobile and desktop application should be
realized and a suitable UX model should be developed for specific evaluation instead of generalizing it since each
user and his or her task differs from one another. The key point of UX is to make product enjoyable, thus it must
be enjoyable even for the hearing-impaired. According to the above discussion, UX dimension of mobility is very
limited and even isolated in case for hearing impaired. Each of these UX dimensions of the available model are
influenced by user, device and task to be fulfilled. Developer have to understand this feature to determine the UX
dimension to be considered for hearing-impaired mobile application. This paper aims to review on existing UX
models in general for desktop and mobile applications. In the future, this study will be extended to study on
metrics for UX model mobile application and important features to be considered in development. The paper will
be beneficial for UX practitioners in the field of Human Computer Interaction.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank everyone that is involved directly or indirectly with this project especially to Majlis
Amanah Rakyat (MARA) for financial support throughout the research study and Universiti Utara Malaysia
(UUM) for their collaboration in the literature works.

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