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Alternative Antimicrobial Cleansing Solutions

Undergraduate #87
Discipline: Biological Sciences
Subcategory: Microbiology/Immunology/Virology
Session: 1

Natasha Bryant - J.F. Drake State Community & Technical College
Co-Author(s): Karmen Latimore, University of Alabama-Huntsville



Antimicrobial Resistance, the constant reminder to keep your hands clean. However, with the constant overuse of cleansing products like Purell and items that contain antibiotics it has caused the emergence of microorganisms that are resistant to those products or ‘Super Bugs’. The need for alternative products with natural derivatives such as honey, aloe and witch hazel, has become necessary. Those products that have the potential to eliminate microorganisms that threaten the treatment and well being of patients in a Medical environment. It has been identified that bacteria thrives on the hands even after normal de-germing processes. A product was used called ‘Glo Germ’ to give a visual representation of how bacteria looked before and after the degerming process. In these experiments, a hypothesis was gathered and tested. Samples were taken from unclean, sanitized and washed hands, then exposed to the saturated natural products. This was done to determine if a zone of inhibition will occur. Results will be presented describing the growth and size of the zone of inhibition. These results will be compared against antibiotics and provide visual representation of how the samples look after being incubated at 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Samples will be recorded at the 24 hour mark as well as the 48 hour mark.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): NSF GA-AL LSAMP Grant# 1305041

Faculty Advisor: Khalid Holmes, khalid.holmes@drakestate.edu

Role: Karmen Latimore and I were equal collaborators on this research project. We both prepared nutrient agar dishes to use, we both collected samples from our volunteer as well as washed the volunteer hands with clean, gloved hands. I prepared the saturated blank diskettes with the natural solution as well as incubated the samples, plated the diskettes and antibiotics and re incubated them again to record the zone of inhibition.

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. DUE-1930047. Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the AAAS Board of Directors, the Council of AAAS, AAAS’ membership or the National Science Foundation.

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