HELP ON MICROBIOLOGY RESEARCH PROJECT

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koneill18
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Re: HELP ON MICROBIOLOGY RESEARCH PROJECT

Post by koneill18 »

Sure, I think it should be possible for you to prepare the liquid herbs yourself. You have to pay close attention to what the herbs are dissolved in because that could affect the results of your experiment. For example, curcumin is highly soluble in alcohols like ethanol, but ethanol by itself is antibacterial. That means that if you put herbs dissolved in ethanol onto your bacteria plates, you won't be able to tell if the bacteria are dying because of the alcohol or because of the herbs. For that reason, it would be best if you can get the herbs to dissolve in water. You can start by searching, "How to dissolve thyme in water," and repeat that for all your other herbs. If you pour hot water over the herbs and allow them to steep for a while, that should produce a liquid you can use for your experiment. Curcumin will probably be the most difficult since it's only partially soluble in water. If boiling water won't dissolve it, you can use dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). You should be able to buy it online.

Another option to consider would be to buy your herbs in essential oil form. Essential oils are usually extracted through steam distillation so they won't have alcohol in them and they will also be more concentrated than herbs dissolved in water. This might enhance their antimicrobial properties. They also should be pretty pure in this form. You could always try using both the herbs in water and essential oil herbs to see which ones kill the bacteria better.

Let me know if you have more questions!
Nashrakhan
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Re: HELP ON MICROBIOLOGY RESEARCH PROJECT

Post by Nashrakhan »

Thank you so much! I've recently been looking into steam distillation. Do you think it would be a better idea to buy essential oils or make them yourself? It does look like a lengthy process but I also think making the essential oils myself shows more dedication from my end. Please let me know what you think.
koneill18
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Re: HELP ON MICROBIOLOGY RESEARCH PROJECT

Post by koneill18 »

You can definitely make them yourself if you want to! But keep in mind that distillation would require you to buy a still and those usually cost several hundred dollars. I think you can do steam distillation with a crock pot, but you would need enough of each herb to fill about half of the pot. If this doesn't seem do-able, I don't think there's anything wrong with just buying the essential oils. The main point of your project is studying the effects of the essential oils on bacteria, not making the oils themselves. So I don't think choosing to buy the oils would make you seem less dedicated! It's entirely up to you and what works the best with your schedule/budget.
Nashrakhan
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Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 5:02 pm
Occupation: Student

Re: HELP ON MICROBIOLOGY RESEARCH PROJECT

Post by Nashrakhan »

Hello,

I have conducted my experiment numerous times and it fails every time. After about 8 trials, I am out of sterile discs, agar plates, and almost out of the bacteria. I have used an incubator and my E. Coli is growing fine. However, there is absolutely no zone of inhibition in any of my quadrants with the different herbal essential oils. I feel so discouraged because I have been planning this project for about 7 months now and the end result is that my project has failed. I don't have the time nor the money to buy new equipment and try the project again. I was supposed to write a research paper on this and submit it for a science fair but without any results, I don't know what I will even write it on. This project took a considerable amount of effort, especially because each essential oil was steam distilled in a high school chemistry lab, with each taking 6 hours and then cleaning the equipment after. It seems that effort has now failed. What should I do? Should I enter this failed project into the Science Fair?

Sorry for such a long message and thank you for everything!
koneill18
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Re: HELP ON MICROBIOLOGY RESEARCH PROJECT

Post by koneill18 »

Hello,

I'm sorry that the results of your project were disappointing! But your project definitely did not fail! All you did was get negative results. Your hypothesis was that your herbs would directly inhibit the growth of E. coli, but when you tested your hypothesis, you found that none of them inhibited E. coli growth. That's still super important information to know! You said yourself earlier that you heard of people using turmeric to treat UTIs, but you didn't know if it was effective or not. Now you know that, at least under your experimental conditions, it doesn't appear to be effective.

Negative results in science are extremely common. I work in a lab and I get a TON of negative results. I have also spent months working on expensive and time consuming experiments that "failed", so I totally understand your disappointment. A lot of people don't want to publish negative results because they think they're not interesting, but they're really so important. Reporting your negative results can save other researchers a ton of time and money on experiments that aren't going to give them the desired result.

You should absolutely enter your project into the science fair! The science fair is all about demonstrating your understanding of the scientific method and showing your enthusiasm for scientific research, and you clearly did both of those things! When you write your conclusion you can talk about why it was important to test your hypothesis and then you can go on to speculate about why you think the results didn't support your hypothesis. For example, you showed that the herbs don't directly inhibit E. coli growth, but maybe they could kill bacteria through a different mechanism. Perhaps they can activate the immune system when they're ingested and promote bacterial killing that way. You can also mention any technical issues that you think could have impacted the results or other alternative hypotheses you could test in the future. If you present your data clearly and logically and show that you followed the scientific method, your project will be viewed favorably! You showed a lot of amazing hard work, dedication, and critical thinking skills, and you should be proud of yourself!
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