Plant Lab
Testing Plant Substances as Potential Medicines
Background: Almost every single organism, is prone to some kind of disease. At some point in their lives, they could be exposed to a bacteria, fungi, or virus that could impact their health. Much of the medicine we use to treat diseases and such, is derived from plants. Some plants produce antimicrobial agents that can kill different bacterias. But in order to be able to safely use some of these plants for medicine use on humans, the plant or plant derivative, must go through a series of tests and observations to ensure that the plant will not be toxic to humans. All in all, we will explore these areas with depth and detail, to learn more about the world of plants and medicine.
Purpose/Objective: What plant materials found locally contain active ingredients that will help the growth of bacteria?
To teach you how to write a formal lab report.
Materials:
Procedure:
Day 1:
Meth Plate: Q 4 has most Bacteria Growth, all other q’s have minimal but some bacteria growth. Rings are around all samples in the agar plate.
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: Q4 has most clearance, all others have less but some.
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 moderate clearance.
Day 3:
Meth Plate: Q4 has most clearance (ampicillin), all others are relatively similar
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/Conclusions:
Meth Plate: We saw a clearing around the the positive control (ampicillin.) It was not substantial, but it was definitely something. It looked like a clear gap between the paper and the gel. We did see a bacterial lawn grow up to the disk. Water would not be expected to have antimicrobial activity because water is a necessity for life, therefore a lot of bacteria will grow in water.
Background: Almost every single organism, is prone to some kind of disease. At some point in their lives, they could be exposed to a bacteria, fungi, or virus that could impact their health. Much of the medicine we use to treat diseases and such, is derived from plants. Some plants produce antimicrobial agents that can kill different bacterias. But in order to be able to safely use some of these plants for medicine use on humans, the plant or plant derivative, must go through a series of tests and observations to ensure that the plant will not be toxic to humans. All in all, we will explore these areas with depth and detail, to learn more about the world of plants and medicine.
Purpose/Objective: What plant materials found locally contain active ingredients that will help the growth of bacteria?
To teach you how to write a formal lab report.
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:
- 2 grams of plant matter were ground up in a water solution, filtered through a filter disk, then filter sterilized. The solution was stored in an eppendorf tube.
- 2 grams of the same plant matter were ground up in a methanol solution, filtered through a filter disk, then filter sterilized. The solution was stored in an eppendorf tube.
- 3 pieces of sterile filter paper were placed in each eppendorf tube.
- 2 petri dishes were sectioned off into 4 quadrants by using a sharpie and drawing a “+” on the bottom then numbered and labeled.
- Both petri dishes were filled with agar.
- 2 pieces of filter paper were placed into an eppendorf tube containing ampicillin, and 2 pieces of filter paper were placed into an eppendorf tube containing water.
- Keeping the methanol and water extracts in different petri dishes, The
Day 1:
Meth Plate: Q 4 has most Bacteria Growth, all other q’s have minimal but some bacteria growth. Rings are around all samples in the agar plate.
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: Q4 has most clearance, all others have less but some.
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 moderate clearance.
Day 3:
Meth Plate: Q4 has most clearance (ampicillin), all others are relatively similar
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/Conclusions:
Meth Plate: We saw a clearing around the the positive control (ampicillin.) It was not substantial, but it was definitely something. It looked like a clear gap between the paper and the gel. We did see a bacterial lawn grow up to the disk. Water would not be expected to have antimicrobial activity because water is a necessity for life, therefore a lot of bacteria will grow in water.