A fourteen-year-old high school student sought a medical discovery that would solve his family’s gallstone woes.
John Anthony Normandia, a second year student from Zapatera High School presented a liquid syrup, he said would dissolve stones in the gallbladder.
“Many of my family members are suffering from this disease and most would seek an operation to get rid of it,” Normandia told reporters during the 2011 Central Visayas Regional Invention Contests and Exhibits.
He said that during a school activity, he inquired from his science teacher if it’s possible to look for an alternative cure for gallbladder.
His teacher told them about a study conducted by Prof. Gregor Burgeos from the Sendai University in Japan on dissolving gallstones using the internal organs of tilapia fish.
With classmates Clyde Carlo Quindao and Zyrille Enrique, Normandia said he performed experiments based on Burgeo’s study using purified alcohol extracts where mixed Methanol and the tilapia innards and tested it on laboratory animals.
He said they are still conducting further research to determine which chemicals on the internal organs can dissolve the gallstones.
Meanwhile, engineer Grecilda Sanchez-Zaballero, the winner of last year’s national invention contest with her organic fungicide from papaya extract, qualified again for the tilt this year.
This time, she presented a study on the use of soya extract and lactobacillus to heals wounds faster.
Zaballero, a chemical engineer, said she is engaged in research and development.
With a US patent on relative replacement and research and development, Zaballero said her firm Lactobiotics Worldwide is moving to pharmaceuticals.
She headed a study on new ways of treating wounds using good bacteria that heals skin tissues and removes wound odor.
“We used soya extract because it contains a lot of nutrients and good bacteria, that heals wounds faster,” Zaballero told Cebu Daily News.
She said three years ago, they conducted a study in Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center using Paficare on 68 patients. The study, she said, produced “positive results.”
She said the traditional wound treatment kills the tissues and bad bacteria, while their product would only eliminate the bad bacteria which destroy the cells. /Candeze R. Mongaya, Reporter