Determining the Efficacy of a Non-Distilled Ethyl Alcohol in the Eradication of a Non-Pathogenic Strain of Escherichia coli Bacteria
The purpose of this research was to determine whether the use of 0%, 25%, 40%, and 50% ethyl alcohol volume concentrations were effective in eradicating the non-pathogenic strain of E. coli bacteria through the method of comparing the light transmittance values before and after the application of the treatment. This was done because the results of the experiment could be applicable in the medical world in regards to providing third world countries with a potential solution to microorganism outbreaks related to poor sanitation conditions. Once the bacteria solutions were prepared, the alcohol was added to the solutions accordingly and the culture tubes were immediately placed in the light spectrometer to see how much light passed through the samples. Then, following an incubation period of 48 hours, the culture tubes were again placed in the light spectrometer. Once completed, the differences in the two transmittance values were calculated for each treatment and compared to each other. The largest of these changes occurred in the 0% alcohol volume concentration trials; therefore, the collected data showed that heavy bacterial growth was experienced in the solutions that were not treated with the alcohol, which pointed to that fact that the non-distilled ethyl alcohol seemed to inhibit the growth of the Escherichia coli(E. coli)bacteria overall.
Research Conducted By:
Jeremy Bojnowski
Lake Shore High School
Robert Martin
Lake Shore High School
Warren Consolidated Schools