Luz Oliveros-Belardo (3 November 1906 – 12 December 1999) was a Filipina pharmaceutical chemist, honored with the

National Scientist of the Philippines The Order of National Scientists of the Philippines, abbreviated as ONS, is the highest award accorded to Filipino scientists by the Philippine government. Members of the order are known as National Scientists ( Filipino: ''Pambansang Alagad ng Ag ...

award by the Philippine government in 1987.

Early life

Luz Oliveros was born in Navotas,

Rizal Rizal, officially the Province of Rizal ( fil, Lalawigan ng Rizal), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region in Luzon. Its capital is the city of Antipolo. It is about east of Manila. The p ...

, the daughter of Aurelio Oliveros and Elisa Belarmino. She held undergraduate and master's degrees in chemistry from the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; fil, Pamantasan ng Pilipinas Unibersidad ng Pilipinas) is a state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by Republic Act No. 9500 (UP Charter of 200 ...

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

. In 1957 she earned a PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

,Artemio R. Guillermo, ed.
''Historical Dictionary of the Philippines''
(Scarecrow Press 2011): 70. with a dissertation involving molecular refraction in terpenes.

Career

Luz Oliveros-Belardo was director of the Natural Sciences Research Center at the Philippine Women's University. She became Dean of the College of Pharmacy in 1947. Her research focused on extracting essential oils and other chemicals from native Philippine plants for pharmaceuticals, food production, scents, and other applications. For example, she developed an experimental formulation based on apitong (''Dipterocarpus grandiflorus'') oleoresin that was suitable for motor fuel. In 1965–1966, she was named an AAUW fellow by the

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide network of 170,000 ...

to pursue her research at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. In 1974, the Philippine Association of University Women recognized her with their Achievement Award in Natural Science. She received the National Scientist Award in 1987. Dr. Luz Oliveros-Belardo extracted 33 new Philippine essential oils from native plants and studied their chemical and physical properties. Her first research was on the chemical and pharmacological properties of Tanglad Tagalog (''Cymbopogon ciratus'') and found that its chemicals, such as potassium citrate that is an effective diuretic compound capable of resisting increased blood pressure. She was one of the first Southeast Asians that conducted studies on Chichirica (''Vinca rosea'') leaves and found that it is rich in alkaloids, glycosides, terpenoids, sterols, fatty acids, and volatile oil.

Personal life

Luz Oliveros married a dentist, Ricardo A. Belardo. They had two daughters. She died in 1999, aged 93 years. Her remains were buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani in Fort Bonifacio,

Taguig Taguig (), officially the City of Taguig ( fil, Lungsod ng Taguig), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in Metro Manila, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 886,722 people. Located in the northwestern shores of ...

."In the Know, Libingan ng mga Bayani"
''Philippine Inquirer'' (19 November 2016).

References

External links

*Andaya Darhl (1980). Academy News Issue No, 0155–4095. Volume 2. Number 3, http://www.nast.ph/images/pdf%20files/Publications/Annual%20Reports/Academy%20News%201980%20Vol.%202%20No.%203.pdf *Bigwas (2019). Pilipinas. Luz Oliveros-Belardo. https://www.pilipinas.bid/2019/10/luz-oliveros-belardo.html *Lee-Chua, Queena (2017). ''Straight Talk on Everyday Mysteries.'' Who's Who in Philippine Science. https://books.google.com/books?id=VzSWDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false *Luz, Oliveros-Belardo (1981). Herbal medication in the Philippines and the search for its scientific basis. 9711180227 *Sonia L. Atabug
"Dr. Luz Belardo, the Compleat Scientist"
''Manila Call'' (5 February 1989). *Specialized Philippine Enterprise Reference of Expert. Luz Oliveros Belardo. http://spheres.dost.gov.ph/sci-profile.php?i=000379 *https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=tl&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Ftl.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLuz_Oliveros_Belardo {{DEFAULTSORT:Oliveros-Belardo, Luz 1906 births 1999 deaths Women biochemists University of the Philippines Manila alumni University of Connecticut alumni Filipino chemists Filipino women chemists People from Navotas Philippine Women's University alumni National Scientists of the Philippines Burials at the Libingan ng mga Bayani