Banaba tea in bottle, bag

MAGALANG, Pampanga – Banaba tea in bottles. And in tea bag, too.

These are among the newest products developed by the Pampanga Agricultural College (PAC) here to boost agricultural development in the country.

Aptly named Obantea (short for organic banaba tea), the health drink is prepared from fresh and organically grown banaba leaves from the state college’s five-hectare banaba plantation in this town at the foot of storied Mt. Arayat.

Earlier scientific studies have indicated that banaba has an insulin-like property, known as corosolic acid, which can lower the blood sugar of people suffering from diabetes mellitus.

The project began with the establishment of a banaba plantation on the PAC campus in 2000. The project was undertaken by PAC headed by Dr. Zosimo M. Battad (president), in collaboration with Use-Techno, a private Japanese firm.

Use-Techno buys the air-dried banaba leaves, PAC research director Roy Kempis told this writer in an interview here recently.

Involved in the PAC banaba project are Dr. Rolando Baccay, Darwin Totaan, Oscar Tarun, and Menrado Gatan.

Kempis said PAC began bottling the "no preservative, all natural" health drink in 2004.

The product was launched in the August 2004 Research and Development (R&D) Symposium of the Central Luzon Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (CLARRDEC) held at the DA-Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija.

Outlets of the product have been gradually growing.

With many people becoming more health-conscious, organic banaba tea is expected to become more appreciated and patronized. – Rudy A. Fernandez