Background: Almost all of the organisms in the world can be affected by a a disease in some way. Throughout their life, they are going to effect their heath in some way. Although, some plants have a way to defend against these infections. We are able to obtain these immunities from those special organisms. These plants use antimicrobial agents that can kill different bacteria in order to defend themselves from viruses. In order to be able to safely use some of these plants for medical use, the plant or plant derivative, has to go through a series of tests and observations to ensure that the plant will not be harmful to human consumption. For our studies, we will explore these areas with depth and detail, and to try and learn more about the world of plants and medicine.
Purpose/Objective: What plant materials, found locally, contain active ingredients that will inhibit the growth of bacteria?
Materials:
Leaves or bark
Coffee filter
Balance
LB broth base
media bottles, 250 Ml
Sterilizer
Water BAth 37°, shaking
Sterile LB agar
Laminar flow hood & disinfectant
Glasses, safety, plastic
Bunsen burner
Gas lighter
Inoculating loop
Ni/Cr wire
Petri dishes
e. coli
mortar and pestle
pipet 10 mL
Plastic funnels
beakers
Syringe, 10 mL. and filter , 0.2 µm.
Reaction tubes and rack, 1.7 mL.
Methanol, Absolute
Pipet, 1 ml. and pump
Dry block heater/heat block
Forceps, fine-tipped
Ampicillin
Glass spreader
Incubator oven, 37°
Procedure:
Measure 2g of plant material
Using a mortar and pestle, grind up 2 g of plant tissue with 10 ml of deionized water
Let sit for 3 minutes
Filter the sample through 11 cm filter paper funnel
Filter sterilize the extract using a syringe filter
Collect 1 ml of extract into a 1.7 ml microtube. Label the tube
Repeat previous steps using methanol instead of water
Results: Day 1: Meth Plate: Q 4 has most Bacteria Growth, all other q’s have smaller amounts of bacterial growth. We have rings forming around our test plates. Water Plate: Clearance has developed around the positive control and the negative control is showing no clearance. Sample one is also showing no clearance. Samples 2 and 3 are just barely showing clearance
Day 2: Meth Plate: Q 4 has most clearance, while the rest only have small amounts. Water Plate: Negative control showing no clearance, Positive control showing lots of clearance. Sample one is showing very little, samples 2 and 3 are showing decent amounts of clearance.
Day 3: Meth Plate: Q 4 has most clearance , all others are relatively similar to the previous days. Water Plate: Quadrants 1 and 2 have a more developed lawn. Sample one still has minimal clearance, sample 2 an hard 3 have a lot of clearance. The negative and positives and controls are showing no clearance and lots of clearance, respectively.
Analysis: Throughout the meth plate we observed a significant clearing around the positive control. There seemed to be a clear open space between the paper and the gel. There was however, a bacterial lawn grow up to the disk. This project was very successful and had very limited errors. I like how we were able to test common plants for a futuristic medicine. This project especially "responds" to me because I wish to go into the medical field.