TS MORE THAN JUST A FOLK STORY
As they say, necessity is the mother of all invention and it is people’s need for pain management that sparkled the conception of BDO Herbosido wonder oil. Remember how your grandmother picked certain leaves from you garden and plastered them in your bruised knee, or the time your mother gave birth to your youngest brother and your main from the province suggested t
hat your mother use boiled guava leaves for her first shower? Those are instances of folk medicine, and many will swear the folk medicine works, even if the people’ administering the cure has not specialized at the John Hopskins Hospital in Maryland. Jose Osido, Sr. was curing body ailments when he was 11. About the time he was learning how to cut hair. His father was a barber, and his mother a self proclaimed “medic” who treated her patients with a variety of plants and herbs and leaves plucked from trees like the acacia, kakauati and kamias, which abounded in the small town of Viga, Catanduanes. He grew up with the awareness that nature is one of the best sources for medicine and treating other ailments. As a child, his mother exposed him to the wonders and benefits of medicine from plants and herbs. Cures for fever and stomach aches were treated with guava leaves and extracts, while toothaches were dealt with by using garlic. It was this exposure that permeated what was to be a very useful invention for people of all ages and all walks of life. Even more extraordinary is the fact that he was not even a chemist when he thought of inventing this special cure. Jose turned both barber and medico for a living and he improved a great deal on his mother’s knowledge of folk medicine. After a series of experimentation, he evolved four herbal mixtures which he termed “magic formulas”. These come in the form of shampoo, powder, oil and liquid. He claims that these concoctions, made from several herbs (the names of which he will not reveal), can remove various body problems from backpains, arthritis, migrane, asthma and a lot more. As a barber by profession, it was no longer unsusual to encounter clients with problems with their hair and scalp. And since during those years, barber shops were also like massage centers, customers also came in the shop looking for a little relief from aching backs and muscles. Hearing his customers problems and complaints gave him a growing concern for thier problems and he began to contemplate on possible solutions such as creating local mixtures to help his customers. When he did, he massaged their heads, applied his magic oil, “and most of them later told me they were freed of their discomforts. I likewise rid some of them of acne, pimples, warts and moles.”
In 1986, he was recognized by the Philippine Invention Development Institute through the Philippine Invention Expo and furtherway, became a proud member of the Filipino Inventors Society giving his discovery a more solid foundation until the present. Through the years Ocido perfected a massage technique. By massaging veins, arteries, pulses, the neck and back of patients, he is able to trace the sources of their diseases. He complements his massage therapy with herbal medicines which he says relieve the patient of his illness.
