BUSINESS BITS

Natural disinfectant
Aireen Laserna

In 1980 Maria Carlita Rex-Doran, a scientist, came up with Siroca, an instant fuel from alcohol that she’d converted from liquid into solid form and then packed into a tin can. The fuel ignites into flame when the lid is opened and goes out when the lid is closed. People can take it anywhere to do some cooking. “It is very safe and easy to use,” says Doran. The product won third prize during the 17th Annual Inventors’ Week in 1983.

The Siroca was already being sold in Japan, Saudi Arabia and Singapore when she decided to produce extracts from gugo, tawas, cucumber, papaya and other plants to make soap, shampoos and lotions. It was during this time that she discovered neem at a convention in India, where the locals regard it as a “wonder tree.”

A large tree, neem is native to the semi-arid areas of Asia and Africa where the people use its fruit, seeds, leaves, bark and roots to treat diarrhea, bronchitis, skin infections, sores, burns and hypertension, and as a general antiseptic and organic insecticide.

Doran quickly did some research on the neem to make personal and home-care products including Bioneem, a natural insecticide that took her only one week to formulate in 1995. Bioneem won the silver medal at the 25th Salon Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1997. “I have yet to fully launch it, but I’m working my way to local distributorship,” she says.

Today, Doran distributes her products to select restaurants and business establishments and uses electronic mails to promote them. She produces 20 drums of Bioneem each month, and because the tree is abundant, all she does is compound extracts from it to make her insecticide.

She has yet to register Bioneem with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the agriculture department because it would cost her money. She’s content to deliver Bioneem to people ordering it until she could.

“It is my dream to see my product ordering it until she could. “It is my dream to see my product on supermarket shelves nationwide,” she says, adding she may have to take out a blank loan to advertise it properly.

She’s not keen to patent Bioneem because she would have to reveal her materials and production process and invite copycats. “I have been a victim of that in the past so I don’t think I’ll register Bioneem,” she says. What she wants is to apply for a trademark so no one else may use the name. “I have many plans for Bioneem,” says Doran. “I’m positive that in the future, we can make it a household name as an organic and environment-friendly insecticide.

In 1980 Maria Carlita Rex-Doran, a scientist, came up with Siroca, an instant fuel from alcohol that she’d converted from liquid into solid form and then packed into a tin can. The fuel ignites into flame when the lid is opened and goes out when the lid is closed. People can take it anywhere to do some cooking. “It is very safe and easy to use,” says Doran. The product won third prize during the 17th Annual Inventors’ Week in 1983.

The Siroca was already being sold in Japan, Saudi Arabia and Singapore when she decided to produce extracts from gugo, tawas, cucumber, papaya and other plants to make soap, shampoos and lotions. It was during this time that she discovered neem at a convention in India, where the locals regard it as a “wonder tree.”

A large tree, neem is native to the semi-arid areas of Asia and Africa where the people use its fruit, seeds, leaves, bark and roots to treat diarrhea, bronchitis, skin infections, sores, burns and hypertension, and as a general antiseptic and organic insecticide.

Doran quickly did some research on the neem to make personal and home-care products including Bioneem, a natural insecticide that took her only one week to formulate in 1995. Bioneem won the silver medal at the 25th Salon Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1997. “I have yet to fully launch it, but I’m working my way to local distributorship,” she says.

Today, Doran distributes her products to select restaurants and business establishments and uses electronic mails to promote them. She produces 20 drums of Bioneem each month, and because the tree is abundant, all she does is compound extracts from it to make her insecticide.

She has yet to register Bioneem with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the agriculture department because it would cost her money. She’s content to deliver Bioneem to people ordering it until she could.

“It is my dream to see my product ordering it until she could. “It is my dream to see my product on supermarket shelves nationwide,” she says, adding she may have to take out a blank loan to advertise it properly.

She’s not keen to patent Bioneem because she would have to reveal her materials and production process and invite copycats. “I have been a victim of that in the past so I don’t think I’ll register Bioneem,” she says. What she wants is to apply for a trademark so no one else may use the name. “I have many plans for Bioneem,” says Doran. “I’m positive that in the future, we can make it a household name as an organic and environment-friendly insecticide.