Sunteți pe pagina 1din 22

By Alec Bukuhan and Xandro Hizon of S2015

Significance
We are testing Citronella grass because it is relatively common in the Philippines, as well as other parts of the world, and it is already being commonly used in things like insect repellant, scented candles and the like, although it is not well known as an antibacterial agent. This is why we are testing this plant if proven to have antibacterial qualities; it will be a great, inexpensive, natural substitute for chemical antibacterials or more expensive ones. Also, the already well-established industry of citronella products will make it easier for manufacturers to begin making and producing it as an antibacterial.

Objectives
To extract chemicals in citronella To properly test the presence of antibacterial properties To compare the extract of citronella to alcohol in its effectiveness as an antibacterial agent To carefully count the number of bacteria in the agar plates

Variable

Independent Variable
Presence of the extract of Citronella grass

Cymbopogon nardus

Dependent Variable
Number of bacteria Staphylococcus aureus

Problem
Declarative Form: The researchers which to find out whether applying Citronella grass extract to bacteria will result in the reduction of the bacteria present, or in other words, test whether Citronella grass extract exhibits antibacterial properties. Question Form: Does Citronella grass extract exhibit antibacterial properties?

Hypothesis
If the extract is applied, then there

will be less bacteria present in the end.

Scope and Delimitations


The experiment will focus only on testing Citronella Grass or Cymbopogon nardus, and no other plant species. The researchers will use the colony count test. We used the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria since it is found on surfaces and is commonly used to test disinfectants Lastly, we are testing the Citronella grass extract on its antibacterial properties, but more on its function as a disinfectant or antiseptic and not as an antibiotic, although these all technically fall under antibacterial.

Materials

ME-012 VORTEX MIXER (TYPE 37600) AND THE 0.5-5ML TRANSFERPETTE S ME-043 CLYDE APAC BIOSAFETY CABINET CLASS II Alchohol lamp Incubator Sterile Microbial Content Test Agar (a litre) Beakers for mixing 100mL capped bottles x8 Petri Dishes x30 Distilled water (1 litre) Phosphate buffer (540mL) Already diluted Staphylococcus aureus

Procedure
1.

First, the materials were prepared, including the bacteria culture Staphylococcus aureus to be used for testing that was already diluted to the 10^-4 and 10^-5 of the original culture. Note that these two dilutions are to be used separately. Next, the 10% citronella and the 1% citronella disinfectants were made by mixing 10mL of the extract to 100mL of water and 1mL of the extract to 100mL of water respectively. Also, Tween 80 was added to make the citronella oil dilute. Next, 1mL of the 10^-4 test inoculum was added to the 100mL of disinfectant, was mixed well and left for 5 minutes. This was done for both the 10% and 1% citronella disinfectants. Next, 10mL out of the 100mL of the disinfectant with bacteria was put into 90mL of a Phosphate buffer and mixed well. Again, this was done for both percentages. Finally, 1mL of that final concoction was plated, (5 plates for each percentage) and agar was poured into the plates.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6. 7. 8.

9. 10.

Steps 3-5 were done again, except with the 70% alchohol as a comparison. Steps 1-5 were done again, except with the 10^-5 dilution. The control was made by plating 1mL of each dilution untreated and also covered in agar. The plates were incubated at 30-35 degrees C for 1-2 days. Once the time elapsed, the colonies were counted and the results, recorded and compared.

Control Groups
10-1 10-2 10-3 10-4 10-5 10-6 10-7 10-8 10-9 10-10

Standard

TNT TNT C C

TNT TNT C C

TNT C

(272, 299)

(27, 24)

(3,6) (2,0) (0,0)

Positive Control

(45, 38)

(5,3)

The Effects of the Presence of Citronella Extract to the Number of Bacteria Staphylococcus aureus
Number of Bacteria (10-4) Trial 1 70% Alcohol 1% Citronella Extract Solution 10% Citronella Extract Solution 0 1 2 0 8 3 0 14 4 0 7 5 0 13 Average 0 8.6

1.6

The Effects of the Presence of Citronella Extract to the Number of Bacteria Staphylococcus aureus
Number of Bacteria (10-5) Trial 1 70% Alcohol 1% Citronella Extract Solution 10% Citronella Extract Solution 0 4 2 0 1 3 0 2 4 0 2 5 0 2 Average 0 2.2

0.2

Analysis
Our data showed that the 1% Citronella Extract solution kills around 58.64% of the bacteria while the 10% Citronella Solution kills around 95.57%. This shows that the Citronella extract does in fact possess some antibacterial properties, more specifically, disinfecting properties since we used a typical surface bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) in our testing. This means that Citronella extract has the potential of being used in disinfectant products such as what we used is the control setup- alcohol. However, In our data, the dilution of 10^-5 yielded less bacteria than we hoped and planned for, making the results of that group less definitive, but still usable. The 10^-4 dilution group yielded more bacteria and showed us more dependable data.

Conclusion
Citronella grass Cymbopogon nardus demonstrates antibacterial properties. It might be as effective as alcohol since the solution is still only a 10% Citronella solution. In the data, The 10% solution almost killed everything in both the 10-4 and 10-5 standards

Recommendation
Include the exposure time of the bacteria to the disinfectant as a variable Test more standards of dilution (the 10^-4 etc.) to get more definitive results Test the Citronella extract against more species of bacteria

Use other methods of testing the extract other than the colony-counting method we used. Test other concentrations of the extract in the disinfectant.

Bibliography

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/blogs/theinbox/citronella-grass-boon-farmersenvironment-032659995.html http://citronella-oil.blogspot.com/ http://www.newsmedical.net/health/What-isStaphylococcus-Aureus.aspx http://www.foodsafety.gov/poisoning/cau ses/bacteriaviruses/staphylococcus/index .html Hizon Laboratory

S-ar putea să vă placă și