A BALIK-SCIENTIST currently assigned at the University of San Agustin in Iloilo is currently working with the research team of Del Monte Philippines, Inc. to develop products that would help lower cholesterol of the consumers.
Dr. Jonel Saludes had been working as a scientist in Washington State University in the United States when he got into a 3-year stint as one of the Balik Scientists under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in 2015.
Under the program of DOST that facilitates partnership between universities and industries, Saludes said he had been working closely in a research partnership with Del Monte Philippines to develop pineapple products that would help lower cases of cholesterol among the consumers.
“We are working closely in partnership with Del Monte Philippines, Inc., our research partner to promote the health benefits of pineapple. Specifically, we are now working on developing pineapple as a functional food which has benefits aside from providing nutrition and specifically we are looking into developing Del Monte products that would lower cholesterol which will benefit a lot of Filipinos because cardiovascular disease is one of the high-mortality cases in the Philippines,” said Saludes during a press conference for the National Science and Technology Week at the SMX Convention Center, SM Lanang Premier last Friday, July 6.
He has yet to disclose any further details of this partnership and said they are still in the research stages.
Aside from this research partnership with Del Monte Philippines, Inc., Saludes’ stay as a research scientist in the University of San Agustin, Iloilo is also focused on the discovery of new antibiotics that will combat multi-drug resistant bacteria.
As an example, he said they would want to discover new drugs against flesh-eating bacteria as a means to help advance the health care in the Philippines. This study he said, is specifically, working on marine drug discovery, making use of the marine resources of the country. This research of new antibiotics is funded by the Department of Science and Technology under the Tuklas Lunas Development Center and the National Research Council of the Philippines under the Biodiversity Program.