Maria Ylagan Orosa
On her birth anniversary today we honor Maria Ylagan Orosa, a pioneer in food technology and war heroine. As a national tribute to her, and in remembrance of her tremendous service to country and people,
A passionate nationalist, Miss Orosa utilized native vegetables and fruits in food preparation to eliminate or minimize importation of food products. She made jellies, jams and marmalades from tamarind, santol, mango, guava; toyo from soy, other beans and even copra; the nutritious “magic food” from powdered soy beans; native cassava substituted for wheat flour; candied fruits went into fruitcakes; calamansi, mango and santolada juice concentrates replaced bottled softdrinks and juices.
Before Del Monte ever thought of making vinegar from pineapple, Miss Orosa was already doing it before World War II. Rice bran became food rich in Vitamin B1 or thiamine for nursing mothers suffering from beri-beri. From the by-products of nata de piña, she manufactured vinegar. The by-product of soybean curd became starch for breads, cookies, while powdered coconut flour was used for biscuits and cookies. She likewise pioneered in the extraction of nicotine insecticide from tobacco dust and tobacco waste material; rotenone from derris roots.
Her many studies included the preparation of dehydrated fruits and vegetables, dehydration of meats, preparation of fish balls, preparation of agar from seaweed, preparation and utilization of peanuts for culinary oil and salad oil. She pioneered in utilizing green banana flour for baking; the pickling of cucumber and green tomatoes; the making of catsup from banana, mango and ripe tomato; the utilization of native fruits in manufacturing wines; and the use of ash and lime for making soap.
She devised a process of canning food for the guerillas, preserved macapuno, banana, camote, other yams and potato as chips. Nuts were preserved with the aid of a vacuum. A food technologist in
In the absence of imported items during the Japanese occupation, her various food products, especially her “magic food”, fed the hungry. As head of the Plant Utilization Division of the Bureau of Plant Industry, she took care of the 400 students stranded in Manila, creating candy, cake, cookie, canning and other units to keep them employed and fed. We were both captains in Marking’s Guerillas, and her job included sending food to the soldiers, as well as American, British and other foreign internees in concentration camps, hospitals, including the Americans in UST, religious communities, the Jesuits among them, many of whom have perished from malnutrition.
In peacetime, she established and organized rural improvement clubs whose membership numbered 22,000 by 1924. She founded the Home Extension Service, which sent hundreds of her H.E. demonstrators to teach barrio housewives better homemaking, childcare, meal planning, food preparation and preservation, poultry raising, home and gardening techniques and handicraft to augment their income. Her famous Palayok Oven was conceived for housewives without electricity. All these came from a woman of tremendous diligence, industry, enterprise, imagination, resourcefulness, patriotism and zeal.
Daughter of Simplicio Orosa y Agoncillo and Juliana Ylagan of
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