Every time we visit Bacolod, we always discover something new and interesting. This time, it is about two practical new inventions of Ramon Uy, the fellow who has come up with several useful inventions in the past.
One is the RU shredder which has become a favorite among organic farming advocates. They use the machine in shredding various biodegradable biomass such as grasses, farm wastes as well as municipal wastes. These are then used in making organic fertilizer. The shredded materials could be made into compost or fed to the African night crawler earthworms which transform them into vermicast or vermicompost.
Another previous invention of Ramon Uy is the lemon grass oil extractor which is used in extracting essential oil from lemon grass leaves. He has also come up with his own version of the ram pump which draws water from a source without any fuel. He has also his own version of a windmill and other useful inventions.
Now, Ramon has two latest inventions. One is a mini coconut oil extractor which is just right for small scale village type operation in areas where there are coconuts. It is a small screw-type presser powered by electricity that extracts the oil from copra, virtually ready for use in cooking after a series of three filtrations using filter paper.
One kilo of copra will yield a half liter of cooking oil. In 15 minutes, a liter of cooking oil could be extracted from two kilos of copra.
Aside from extracting cooking oil from copra, Ramon Uy’s machine could extract virgin coconut oil from the meat of mature coconut. The meat has to be sliced into small pieces and placed in an electric dryer that will reduce the moisture content to 50 percent.
The semi-dried slices of coconut meat are then fed to the mini coconut oil extractor to extract the milk. From one kilo of half-dried coconut meat, one-half liter of virgin coconut oil could be derived.
BOTANICAL PESTICIDE – Another new invention of Ramon Uy is a botanical pesticide derived from plant extracts. This is a combination of lemon grass oil, citronella oil and a small amount of lemon (the fruit) oil imported from France.
The botanical pesticide was purposely developed to prevent or control the multiplication of the mosquito that causes dengue fever. The spray is very safe to humans so that it is ideal for spraying in classrooms, residential homes, offices and other places.
The botanical pesticide has been given the go signal of the Food and Drug Administration. While it is newly produced commercially, Ramon Uy is very happy that the local government has already ordered P800,000 worth of the product for use in classrooms.
Ramon thought of developing the botanical pesticide with the help of Marilyn Celis, a chemist, because he wanted to add value to the lemon grass and citronella oil that farmers are extracting with the use of Ramon’s extractor.
In Negros, by the way, so many wellness products are being produced such as turmeric powder, malunggay capsules, herbal soaps and many more. One also finds a lot of organic product advocates producing organic sugar, organic coffee, organic rice and others. Chin Chin Uy is a major player in the organic products movement in Negros with a store at the Robinsons in Bacolod.
