A public school teacher from Tabaco City is applying her science background in processing
malunggay (Moringa oleifera) leaves into nutritious food supplements that are now making a big hit in the local market.
Ms.
Tomasa Camu who teaches science at the
Tabaco National High School (TNHS) here started discovering years back malunggay’s rich nutritional values through experiments in her science classes as output for research projects.
“Our experiments were inspired by the big problem on malnutrition confronting school children particularly in the pre-school and elementary levels in the city, other parts of Albay and most provinces of Bicol as per data gathered then from the local office of the National Nutrition Council (NNC),†Camu told the Philippines News Agency over the week.
Together with her students, Camu tested and analyzed several locally available vegetable varieties and found out
malunggay to have the most potential to address malnutrition and other health concerns.
And for the result of the experiment not to be left only as a school project output, Camu in 2008 put up a small entrepreneurship venture named
Moringa Health Products and Pastries in her residence at Barangay Bangkilingan here where she processed malunggay leaves into powder, tea, capsules, polvoron, and coffee creamer.
In less than a year, her products became known and popular. It came to a point in 2009 that production was no longer enough to meet the local market demand.
Camu sought help from the regional office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Legazpi City which under its Small Enterprises Technology Upgrading Program (SET-UP) provided her assistance in the project entitled, “Scaling Up the Production, Packaging and Marketing of Malunggay Powder and By-Productsâ€.
SET-UP is a program of the DOST that provides local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) assistance through a comprehensive package of science and technology (S&T) service and facilities to improve competitiveness and productivity.
This assistance comes in the modes of technology acquisition, product testing and standards, packaging and labeling, consultancy and advisory services, database and information management system and linkaging and networking. - PNA
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