We did run into some issues with using the ethanol extraction. At first, the concentration was higher, about 7% in the well, however, this had to be reduced to the 3.5% you see listed on our poster. This was because with the 7%, our negative control was also killing the Salmonella. The 3.5% was a bit of a better negative control, however, our negative control absorbance values were a bit all over the place (shown through our large error bars), and this was shown to be a pretty consistent issue amongst all groups that used ethanol extractions.
The 3.5% ethanol negative control was difficult to work with. Our absorbance values across different days varied widely, something that was rather common amongst all groups that used ethanol extractions in their experiments. For this reason, we were not able to come to a clear conclusion about lycopene’s effect on Salmonella as our error bars were so large and showed now statistically significant difference between the absorbance values across all concentrations.
Hi Avalon! Great question! Both of our compounds actually show little promise for having antibacterial qualities; however, what we would like to do in the future with the Carica Papaya leaf extract is test all of the active compounds within it, not just lycopene. Since past research shows the leaf extract to have some promise of being an antibiotic, we feel that this investigation is justified. If any of the other compounds tested are in fact shown to be potential antibiotics after a similar procedure is conducted, then medicinal chemistry would be conducted on the compound followed by traditional testing on cells, mice, and eventually humans in clinical trials. If the drug passes all of these phases, it should be able to be taken as a pill or via an intravenous route like currently existent antibiotics.
Great job! Does the leftover ethanol from extraction affect the experiment in any way?
We did run into some issues with using the ethanol extraction. At first, the concentration was higher, about 7% in the well, however, this had to be reduced to the 3.5% you see listed on our poster. This was because with the 7%, our negative control was also killing the Salmonella. The 3.5% was a bit of a better negative control, however, our negative control absorbance values were a bit all over the place (shown through our large error bars), and this was shown to be a pretty consistent issue amongst all groups that used ethanol extractions.
What were the difficulties in working with the 3.5% ethanol negative control?
The 3.5% ethanol negative control was difficult to work with. Our absorbance values across different days varied widely, something that was rather common amongst all groups that used ethanol extractions in their experiments. For this reason, we were not able to come to a clear conclusion about lycopene’s effect on Salmonella as our error bars were so large and showed now statistically significant difference between the absorbance values across all concentrations.
Hi Renee!
Great work! How might the lycopene and Carica papaya doses be administered in order to combat antibiotic resistant infection?
Cheers,
Avalon
Hi Avalon! Great question! Both of our compounds actually show little promise for having antibacterial qualities; however, what we would like to do in the future with the Carica Papaya leaf extract is test all of the active compounds within it, not just lycopene. Since past research shows the leaf extract to have some promise of being an antibiotic, we feel that this investigation is justified. If any of the other compounds tested are in fact shown to be potential antibiotics after a similar procedure is conducted, then medicinal chemistry would be conducted on the compound followed by traditional testing on cells, mice, and eventually humans in clinical trials. If the drug passes all of these phases, it should be able to be taken as a pill or via an intravenous route like currently existent antibiotics.