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Dr. Milagros Greif, CAS Dean, is concocting the 70% ethyl alcohol with mosquito repellent inside CNU’s Biology laboratory to supply personnel in time of the COVID-19 scare. / Photo by Kim Francis Rodriguez 

Times of crisis call generous people with big hearts to extend their helping hands to those who need it and gladly, one in Cebu Normal University (CNU) has thought of doing the same thing in its community.

In time of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, Dr. Milagros Greif, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and a faculty at the Biology Department in CNU has decided to make a disinfectant alcohol enriched with mosquito repellent last Tuesday, March 17, 2020 which was distributed to the different personnel in the University.   

Ms. Mechelle Canoy, PIO Staff is distributing rations of the 70% ethyl alcohol with mosquito repellent made by Dr. Milagros Greif to the different personnel in the University.
Ms. Mechelle Canoy, PIO Staff is distributing rations of the 70% ethyl alcohol with mosquito repellent made by Dr. Milagros Greif to the different personnel in the University. / Photo by Erven Noval

Greif said that she noticed the urgent need for disinfectant alcohol when the product has been running out in stores because of the COVID-19 scare. It was then that she decided to concoct a disinfectant alcohol inside the biology laboratory to be given to the skeletal force of the University.   

“I applied what I have learned during my PhD when I was requested by my professor to make an alcohol with different concentrations for mosquito preservation in my experiments,” she said.   

Dr. Milagros Greif is harvesting lemon from her garden to be used in her 70% ethyl alcohol with mosquito repellent. (Contributed photo)

Greif said that she used raw materials such as ethanol and natural plant extracts found in her garden (lemon and clavo which are scientifically known as mosquito repellents) to make the alcohol concoction. 

She said that she has decided to add mosquito repellent to the alcohol in order not just to prevent the spread of COVID-19 but also to give protection to people against mosquitoes which are carriers of equally deadly viruses such as dengue.

Greif finished her Masters in Biology specializing in the study of insects. She finished her Doctorate studies as a scholar of the German Academic Exchange Services at the University of Heidelberg in Germany specializing in mosquitoes. She has been well-versed on the subject of mosquitoes after studying it for more than 15 years.

Greif was recently recognized as an outstanding researcher on urban pest control through biotechnology and was awarded nationally as one of the Filipino Faces of Biotechnology given by the Department of Agriculture-Biotechnology Program Office (DA-BPO) last November 26, 2019. (JDF)