Abstract:
To determine if garlic extract has antibiotic properties and can be used as an effective antibiotic, garlic extract, two positive controls and a negative control were tested as antibiotics on a pure bacteria culture. The garlic extract had a significantly different effect on the bacteria culture than the negative control, and was deemed to be a fairly effective antibiotic. The garlic extract was tested on Gram-negative bacteria and may have a different effect on Gram-positive bacteria due to the fact that both types have different cell wall compositions and the antibiotic works by breaking through cell walls.
Introduction:
Antibiotics can be defined as “organic compounds produced by microorganisms which selectively inhibit the growth of or kill off other microorganisms mostly used against bacteria and fungal infections in humans and animals”(Lawrence). For decades the only antibiotics known to man kind was natural grown herbs that was until the discovery of Penicillin in the 1940’s. Once penicillin was discovered to be so effective towards killing off bacterial infections a wide array of pharmaceuticals with similar properties began to emerge into the medical stream, eliminating the need for natural grown remedies which took much longer to fend off various infections. Unfortunately, the form of using just pharmaceuticals and no natural herbs may be coming to an abrupt halt. In the past decade bacteria has began to experience mutations which help them survive the dosage of antibiotics and reproduce, this is called Antibiotic Resistance. Once a bacteria becomes resistant to treatment it will multiply quickly thus making more resistant organisms and the antibiotic is then useless towards the infection, because of this more and more pharmaceuticals must be modified at a quick rate to combat the resistive organisms. To try and prevent this scientists are now looking back into herbal remedies to fight against common bacteria. Many plants have...