Acknowledgement

We would never have been able to finish our dissertation without the guidance of

our neighbors, help from friends, and support from my family.

We would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Mrs. Modie Flores,

for her excellent guidance, caring, patience, and providing us with an excellent

atmosphere for doing research. We would like to thank our Parents, who let

us experience the research of Malunggay Cupcake in the field and practical issues

beyond the textbooks, internet, patiently corrected our writing and financially supported

our research. We would also like to thank Menchie Hermones, and Ludy Balagosa, for

guiding our research for the past several weeks and helping us to develop our

background in biochemistry.

We would like to thank our Classmates, who as a good friend, was always willing

to help and give their best suggestions. It would have been a lonely lab without them.

We would also like to thank our parents, two elder sisters, and elder brother.

They were always supporting us and encouraging us with their best wishes.

We give thanks to God almighty for giving us the understanding, knowledge and wisdom during the course of our study. Finally, we would like to thank our classmate Auntie, Sally Barral. She was

always there cheering us up and stood by us through the good times and bad.

Dedication

We dedicate my dissertation work to our family and many friends. A special

feeling of gratitude to our loving parents, Michelle’s Parents, Modie and Victor Flores,

Niela’s Parents, Majacel and Lucito Berlanas, Claire’s Parents, Loida and Joselito Garcia,

Bea’s Parents, Liza and Annie Cata, whose words of encouragement and push for

tenacity ring in our ears. Our