Pinay Student Earns Awards In Arizona, USA After Discovering A Cure to Diabetes

Diabetes is one of the common diseases of many Filipinos. It is a disease wherein the blood glucose or blood sugar level becomes too high. That glucose actually came from the foods we eat. There is a hormone that helps the glucose to be absorbed by the cells in our body and it is called the insulin. Diabetes actually has two types, type 1 and type 2 diabetes. With the type 1 diabetes, our body does not make insulin, while in type 2 diabetes which is also very common among the two diseases, our body could not make or use the hormone insulin well.

Recently, a 16-year-old Filipina high school student hails from Iloilo had discovered an Aratiles fruit also known as “Sarisa” to be a cure for diabetes. She was identified as Maria Isabel Layson. She is one of the winners of the 2019 National Science and Technology Fair (NSTF) that was held last February. She was actually one of the 12 candidates that were sent to join the International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

She represented our country in one of the biggest pre-college Science Research Competition in the world. She gave pride and honor to the Philippines as she became the first in her batch to receive a Gokongwei Brothers Foundation Young Scientist Award. The individual study of Layson was entitled “Bioactive Component, Antioxidant Activity, and Antidiabetic Properties of Muntingia Calabura Linn. An In Vitro Study” where she found out that “Sarisa” can be a possible cure to Type 2 diabetes.

You would have thought that an Aratiles fruit can be a cure for a very common disease in the Philippines that a lot of Filipino people are experiencing even until today. Aratiles fruits are very popular anywhere in our country. We had also known about the fruit ever since we are young because it was also a part of our childhood picking Aratiles fruits from its tree and tasting its sweetness.

According to her study, eating Aratiles fruit is the cheapest way to cure Type 2 diabetes but using its branches, leaves and flowers can also be used as it also contains a lot of antioxidants that can be used for its anti-diabetic properties. Aratiles fruit also known as Jamaican Cherry, Panama Cherry, Singapore Cherry, and Bolaina Yamanaza to some other countries. On the other hand, it has several names in the Philippines including datiles, kerson, manzanitas (small apples), and “Sarisa” by the Ilonggos in the Visayas region of our country.