Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

The idea of my project is to compare the antibacterial abilities of plants to essential oils. I am to be swabbing an originally sterile area to see if the plant or essential oils through a diffuser do a better job at keeping the area clean. However, I've searched the web and have only come up with air cleaning plants. Are these what I need? If not, is even the diffuser a good idea? Do I need to reroute my whole project?

Testing essential oils for antibacterial activity is a good project. You can use the Kirby-Bauer zone-of-inhibition method for measuring an oil's effect on E coli bacteria. Here's a Scibuddies project that describes this method:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... inhibition

I am not sure what you want to do with plants. Essential oils are extracts from plants that may have antibacterial activity. How did you plan to measure the effect of a plant on bacteria? You could get several types of plants--herbs, flowers, shrubs, even trees--grind up the leaves in a blender with water, strain the liquid and test that on E coli. Is that what you were thinking of?

Post again with some details of your experiments and maybe we can help.

Sybee