Why did you need to use both the labgrade/homeopathic and the oil? Did one of them serve as a control? Could you have only used one? I might have missed this!
The lab-grade allicin is more likely to be a purer version of the compound. So if it was more effective than the homeopathic allicin, it would suggest other compounds in homeopathic allicin that make it less effective as a potential antibiotic.
Thank you for sharing about your research! I’m curious if you have any hypotheses for why your controls did not work in some of the trials? Also, what new information would the max does, dose-response curve, and bactericidal/bacteriostatic experiments give you?
Plate set up, leaving the plate out for too long, and other user errors are potential reasons we were thinking of. We wouldn’t have to do max dose experiments for any of the compounds we tested since that was what we were testing. The dose-response curve would show if the antibiotic could be effective at lower concentrations and the bactericidal/bacteriostatic experiments would show if our antibiotic kills or just stops bacterial growth.
What ideas do you have for why the allicin and garlic oil didn’t inhibit Salmonella growth when there’s a lot of research that demonstrates their antimicrobial properties?
The homeopathic compounds could potentially have other compounds that interfere with the allicin which we were testing. Since this was our first plate testing lab-grade allicin there is the potential for user error such as incorrect plate set up or leaving the compound at room temperature too long (it was stored in a refrigerator).
Why do you think that your group had more variation between your plates? Is there anything you’d want to do differently to prevent this if you were to repeat your project?
We think the most likely reason is leaving our compounds after ethanol extraction or at room temperature for too long were the most likely reasons for variation. We were starting to time our plate set up or perform it with the same period as the extraction to minimize the variation.
It was a media that allowed the Salmonella to grow in a controlled environment without impacting the growth to allow to compare to our compounds for growth.
Why did you need to use both the labgrade/homeopathic and the oil? Did one of them serve as a control? Could you have only used one? I might have missed this!
The lab-grade allicin is more likely to be a purer version of the compound. So if it was more effective than the homeopathic allicin, it would suggest other compounds in homeopathic allicin that make it less effective as a potential antibiotic.
Thank you for sharing about your research! I’m curious if you have any hypotheses for why your controls did not work in some of the trials? Also, what new information would the max does, dose-response curve, and bactericidal/bacteriostatic experiments give you?
Plate set up, leaving the plate out for too long, and other user errors are potential reasons we were thinking of. We wouldn’t have to do max dose experiments for any of the compounds we tested since that was what we were testing. The dose-response curve would show if the antibiotic could be effective at lower concentrations and the bactericidal/bacteriostatic experiments would show if our antibiotic kills or just stops bacterial growth.
What ideas do you have for why the allicin and garlic oil didn’t inhibit Salmonella growth when there’s a lot of research that demonstrates their antimicrobial properties?
The homeopathic compounds could potentially have other compounds that interfere with the allicin which we were testing. Since this was our first plate testing lab-grade allicin there is the potential for user error such as incorrect plate set up or leaving the compound at room temperature too long (it was stored in a refrigerator).
Why do you think that your group had more variation between your plates? Is there anything you’d want to do differently to prevent this if you were to repeat your project?
We think the most likely reason is leaving our compounds after ethanol extraction or at room temperature for too long were the most likely reasons for variation. We were starting to time our plate set up or perform it with the same period as the extraction to minimize the variation.
What characteristics of ethanol made it a good control for your experiment?
It was a media that allowed the Salmonella to grow in a controlled environment without impacting the growth to allow to compare to our compounds for growth.