Two plants of Piura Highlands are used to make filter drinks

Photographs provided by AgroRedNorte.

 

Students of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes School, at Segunda y Cajas Farmer Community (El Carmen de la Frontera District) and Innova Páramos Association, basedon Totoras Village (Pacaipampa District) presented two  filter drinks made of lanché (Myrcianthes myrsinoides)and ushpa (Vaccinium foribundum),looking to blast the market of functional & nutraceutical drinks.

 

The products are the result of a participative investigation proposing to conserve ecosystems paramos and cloud forests at the Andes of Piura Department by using medicinal and fruit native species to make filter beverages. It has been promoted by Muqui Network and advised scientifically by AgroRedNorte.

 

They’ve been made by the own locals, this is used as a strategy to conserve the Andean highland ecosystems that are part of their territory.  The investigation is already as longer as than over a decade, it’s promoted by agroRedNorte and Mountain Institute.

 

The purpose is knowing and spreading the riches that the plants at paramos and cloud forests of Piura Highlands have in chemicals. The initiative has been funded between 2015 and 2023 by Peru’s National Council of Science, technology, and Innovation, and Peru’s National Program for Agrarian Innovation.

 

AgroRedNorte’s senior researcher Dr. Fidel Torres Guevara underlined the importance of this scientific investigation as much as it generates economic welbeing based upon the traditional knowledge of the communities.

 

The biologist added this promotes innovation that can turn into economic gains for every member of the community. He highlighted this also stimulates scientific & technical training at schools as large as their own ecosystem turns their experiential laboratory.

 

Products were developed by pharmaceutical chemist Karla Sabana Leon who got a super-drink as she combined lanché and ushpa.

 

Lanché has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties. Ushpa, an Ericaceae genus fruit growing at paramo’s (between 9800 to 11,500 feet altitude) has antioxidant properties, 8 to 10 times much powerful than the blueberry.  At the same time, it’s belief it improves the response of the immunologic system.

 

FACTORTIERRA could not verify independently the accuracy of the alleged properties of ushpa.

 

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