Biology EE methodology on bacterial growth help?

[abelkoontz]

Research question: 

 

To what extent are natural Chinese herbal remedies (antibiotics) effective in reducing the growth of bacterial organisms [e.g. Escherichia Coli]?

 

I'm looking for a method i could use for my experiment?

 

I was initially thinking about using agar jelly or something, I literally don't know what to do. PLEASE HELP 

[Sandy]

You can use agar jelly to grow the bacteria. You can then introduce the 'Chinese herbal medicine' to one set and give a non-herbal medicine to another set and then observe the time each takes to reduce bacteria. I don't know what natural Chinese herbal remedies you're thinking of using, but you can crush it and make a paste and then put it in with the bacteria. Do the same for the medicine. You can then compare the effectiveness of both.

 

You'll need to decide which bacteria you're gonna grow and which antibiotics you'll use for that. Check for the availabilities of all the equipment you need. If you're still confused, you should talk to your teacher. He/she can help you out a little bit. If you're looking for a method to grow the bacteria, you can google it. Its not that difficult to obtain the method. You'll have to write it in your own words though, otherwise it'll show up in plagiarism.

[Xavier]

I did my Biology IA investigating the anti-bacterial effects of honey. For the plates I made a 2% agar-chicken stock solution and the bacteria was attained from just swabbing my mouth. Then I just spread 5ml of different concentrations of honey-water solutions onto the plates. Just in case the home made plates wouldn’t work I also had back up blood medium plates that the school happened to have. However feasible results were gained with both types of plate.

 

Since it is an EE I recommend controlling the type of bacteria rather than swabbing for it, but the rest of the procedure could be similar. Either make the growth medium yourself or alternatively order some online. At least with honey anything over 25% concentration killed almost everything so I suggest you use lower concentrations of medicine e.g. the amount you would normally take being close to the highest. There are lots of recipes for agar growth gels online, but I used a 2% agar gel for extra firmness, also take your time when making them. You may also need an incubator to control growth conditions.

 

Hope this helped and best of luck with your experiments!