Do Different Juices Affect the Effectiveness of Antibiotics?

Overview

Objectives/Goals The purpose of my science project is to determine if different juices will help my test antibiotics create a larger area of bacterial inhibition than they would have alone. It is commonly believed that green tea, pomegranate juice, grapefruit juice, and cranberry juice are beneficial to your health; for this reason I wanted to see what would happen if I mixed them with penicillin and amoxicillin. Methods/Materials For my control I tested the antibiotics and juices individually to determine if they created an area of inhibition around the test dot. To do this I dipped an absorbent test dot in the test liquid and placed it in a petri dish that I swabbed with the bacillus subtilus bacteria. After I completed my control tests I mixed 10 ml of a test antibiotic and 50 ml of a test juice in a seperate perscription container. I repeated the steps I used to test my control liquids to test my mixed liquids. Each test was repeated 11 times for more accurate results. After 48 hrs and 96 hrs I measured the areas of inhibition and documented them in my log book. I had a total of 17 different test substances. Results After 48 hrs of incubation all of my mixed test substances had larger areas of inhibition than the control substances. After 96 hrs the mixed test substances still had larger areas of inhibition than the control test substances, however the overall areas of inhibition were decreasing. Conclusions/Discussion Through testing I discovered that these juices did help the antibiotics to create a larger area of inhibition. However, through my research I discovered that while these juices have health benefits on their own, they also contribute to negative drug interactions. I feel that further investigation is needed before drinking these juices while taking medications.

Competition history

• CSEF 2008 Product Science (Biological) (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1828

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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