Painkillers, they are the biggest pharmaceutical industry countrywide and now a Belizean company is hoping to tap in to that lucrative market with an all natural oil that's good for everything from cuts and scratches to arthritis. If it sounds to good to be true, that's how it sounded to us too, so we went to investigate.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
It's called Mayan Secret, 100% natural healing oil, a local product developed by Rafael Gongora of Belize Chemical Specialties. He says the oil inside this little bottle, distilled form citrus, camphor and menthol is good for a variety of ailments.
Rafael Gongora,
"This is more directly for people who have arthritis, rheumatism pain, muscular pain, and minor cuts, bruises, insect bites, and nail infections."
And more than that, Gongora says this is the cure for arthritis.
Rafael Gongora,
"Why we using the orange essence oil is because it's a penetrating agent. Once you put it on your skin it penetrates the pores and it go into your blood stream in 15 to 20 minutes carrying the camphor as a pain killer and also the menthol is a direct, it doesn't on the surface of your skin, it goes direct to where you need it."
Jules Vasquez,
Cynically one might say you are offering people false hope. Will this really heal your pain?
Rafael Gongora,
"Well this product to put it on the market, it took me about 8 months. I started with the idea then we did research for each ingredient, the orange oil essence, the camphor, and the menthol. After I get together all the three components, we start to formulate the product and after we formulate the product we start to give out samples to the individual people who suffer from arthritis especially. The main person that helped we is Helpage. We gave it to the people there and we get results. We document all the testimonies so in the whole thing we get about 30 testimonies and after that we decided to go forward with packaging and bottling and so on. Once finished we went to the Ministry of Health to see if they could approve it and after 2 months they approved it for us. They said it is okay to put it on the market."
This product is part of a family of citrus based products developed from the local citrus industry.
Jules Vasquez,
You're saying citrus oil is also good for arthritis?
Rafael Gongora,
"Well my research shows me that in the past, especially in the Stann Creek Area, they used to use the raw orange oil to alleviate pain from arthritis."
And with the international ban on the arthritis medicine, Vioxx, who knows, if Gongora's claims are right, Mayan Secret could emerge as the next best thing.
Maya Oil is available countrywide and retails for $14 a bottle.
