MANILA, Philippines — Private sector proponents of the health promotion and disease prevention benefits of virgin coconut oil are conducting their own informal study on the advantages and effectiveness of VCO to protect medical frontliners in both government-run and private hospitals from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
San Pablo City, Laguna-based Tropicana Food Products Inc. and San Juan City-based Team Asia Corp., both pioneer coconut processors and exporters, have teamed up to provide free VCO to some 20 doctors in various hospitals in Metro Manila that are accommodating COVID-positive patients to look at their immune system’s performance while they are in the frontlines.
It was learned that the 20 participant doctors are from The Medical City in Ortigas, Protacio Hospital in Parañaque, University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, Makati Medical Center, Asian Hospital in Muntinlupa, San Juan de Dios Hospital in Pasay, Adventist Medical Center Manila in Pasay, National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong; New Bilibid Prison Hospital in Muntinlupa and Dr. Jose Fabella Hospital in Manila.
Tropicana and Team Asia have provided VCO nasal sprays and mouth sprays which are said to be better ways of delivering VCO to the human body.
Team Asia exports its organic VCO products primarily to China, while Tropicana’s owner and general manager, migrant Filipino-Chinese engineer-businessman-inventor Sing Tiu, had invented the patented VCO nasal spray and mouth spray being marketed mostly to the United States.
Meanwhile, Team Asia’s chief executive officer William Guido said they were encouraged to undertake the “informal study” focusing on medical doctors as they joined the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)’s apparent serious commitment to gain recognition of VCO’s health benefits, particularly its antiviral properties, as the country battles the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the DOST was already funding the research and development efforts on VCO for suspected and positive COVID-19 cases, Team Asia expressed desire to help in providing VCO to medical frontliners in view of the many tragic stories of COVID-19 infection and mortalities among doctors exposing themselves to the deadly virus while treating COVID patients.
Guido said that by providing them with VCO, they hope to bolster the morale of the medical frontliners as they report daily to hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients, and also boost their immune systems so that they will be less vulnerable to virus infection.
The businessman added that the DOST’s effort to gain recognition for VCO as a health product will be a big boost to thousands, if not millions, of coconut farmers who remain among the country’s poorest families despite farming a crop that brings so many uses and benefits to humans.
“Hence, in our small way, we are helping our poor coconut farmers by buying their harvests consistently even if the price of coconut products had fallen tremendously in the local market in the past several years,” he said.
“Should the ongoing VCO trial by the DOST show that VCO, indeed, can cure COVID-19 patients, then Team Asia and Tropicana can now give more priority to provide our premium organic and export quality VCO available to our local markets so that our own countrymen can be greatly benefited, and we all help beat COVID-19,” he added.
