Health and Medicine

Did You know that Biotechnology has also aided medical research in finding new and more effective cures for serious diseases and developing diagnostic tools to detect diseases in their early stages.

Researches on the use of Philippine plants with medical value are being done to promote self-reliance among the rural folks and to help reduce the adverse effect of the rising costs of medicine. The Studies deal with the preparation of drugs from the crude plant materials and from semi-pure and pure plant constituents.

There are the example, the technology for the production of lagundi, tsaang gubat, sambong, and yerba buena tablets has been transferred to a private pharmaceutical company for commercial scale production. Lagundi is a remedy for fever; tsaang gubat is antidiarrheal; sambong for cough; and yerba buena is a pain reliver. Another firm produces, under a certain brand name, 250 mg capsules containing malunggay which increases milk secretions of lactating mothers.