María Orosa y Ylagan[3] (November 29, 1892 – February 13, 1945) was a Filipina food technologist, pharmaceutical chemist, humanitarian, and war heroine.

[4] She experimented with foods native to the Philippines, and during World War II developed Soyalac (a nutrient rich drink from soybeans) and Darak (rice cookies packed with vitamin B-1, which prevents beriberi disease), which she also helped smuggle into Japanese-run internment camps that helped save the lives of thousands of Filipinos, Americans, and other nationals.

She was then offered a position as an assistant chemist for the state of Washington before returning to the Philippines in 1922 to focus on addressing the problem of malnutrition in her homeland.

Vicente Ylagan Orosa Sr., became Secretary of Public Works and Communications, and, later, Chairman of the People's Homesite and Housing Corporation (PHHC) during the administration of President Ramon Magsaysay.

She initially taught home economics at the Centro Escolar University, and later transferred to the Philippine Bureau of Science's food preservation division.

She organized 4-H clubs in the islands (which had more than 22,000 members by 1924), and traveled into the barrios to teach women how to raise chickens, preserve local produce, and plan healthy meals.

With the help of this organization, she and numerous protesters visited various communities throughout the Philippines to educate women on innovative methods of food preparation and preservation.

[7] Orosa invented the palayók oven to enable families without access to electricity to bake, and developed recipes for local produce, including cassava, bananas, and coconut.

Using both her local and technical knowledge, Orosa made culinary contributions and taught proper preservation methods for native dishes such as adobo, dinuguan, kilawin and escabeche.

The guerrillas helped United States forces fight the occupying Imperial Japanese troops, and employed carpenters to insert Soyalac and Darák into hollow bamboo sticks, which were then smuggled to civilians imprisoned at the University of Santo Tomas and in Japanese-run prisoners of war camps in Capas, Tarlac and Corregidor.