Google pays tribute to Filipina banana ketchup inventor

Happy birthday to the one who invented the famous Filipino condiment, the Banana Ketchup!

Google honored the Filipina food technologist, war hero, and humanitarian Maria Ylagan Orosa on her 126t birthday through doodle art displayed on the website’s homepage.

Orosa is popular for being a food pharmaceutical chemist with over 700 recipes under her name – including the Banana Ketchup. Thanks to her!

Doodle Google

The doodle includes her artwork version of herself holding a test tube surrounded by a variety of food such as vegetables, fruits, including the bottle of banana ketchup and some condiments. In a post of Google Doodle, it is noted that Orosa was offered a post in Washington as an assistant Chemist before returning to the Philippines in 1992 to focus on addressing the problem of malnutrition.

Aside from that, Orosa also invented Soyalac (a nutrient-rich drink derived from soya beans), and Darak (rice cookies packed with vitamin B-1, which could also prevent beriberi disease) which had saved countless lives during World War II.

“In recognition of Orosa’s contributions to Filipino society, the National Historical Institute installed a marker in her honor at the Bureau of Plant Industry in Manila in 1983,” the post read.

Orosa died on February 13, 1945, due to a shrapnel shard that pierced her heart during an American bombing raid.