last thursday we did an exercise in mircobiology lab where we streaked two plates(or petri dishes containing nutrients needed for bacterial growth) with bacteria. one plate was streaked with escherichia coli (or e. coli, a gram negative bacteria). the other was streaked with staphylococcus epidermidis (a gram positive bacteria). once we streaked the plates we moved over to a station where there stood several beakers of antiseptics and disinfectants. soaking in the beakers were little paper disks. we placed the soaked disks onto our plates. when i looked at our lab schedule and saw that we were doing a disk diffusion lab with antiseptics and disinfectants i was psyched(ok ok i AM a nerd- get over it!). i really wanted to see where thieves cleaner (the stuff i use at home on counters, sinks, toilets, lightswitches, doorhandles, etc) stacked up. when i got to class my teacher helped me dilute my thieves cleaner to a 1:30 strength. thieves is made from a blend of essential oils and smells so earthy and spicy and warm. i used to clean with vinegar but got so sick of the scent. my friend maryann turned me onto the
thieves oil for ingestion(i use it whenever i get a throat tickle-ZAP it away). once i was a believer she shared the cleaner with me- and i LOVE it! anyway,
so- the key to the pictures below is this-
the antiseptics-
1-triadine
2-95% ethanol
3-listerine
the disinfectants-
4-lysol
5-0.28% envirocide
6-1:128 cidecon
and 7....THIEVES.
ignore 8- i got overexcited with my sharpie:)
the clearing around each disk indicates that the disk is efficient in killing off the organism. gram negative bacteria such as e. coli are pretty resistant to most antiseptics and disinfectants- hence the smaller clearings. anyhow- if anyone shares the trait of nerdiness that i do, i hope you enjoy this little glimpse into my lab.
5 comments:
If I'm looking correctly, it seems the thieves oil does a good job at killing the bacteria. Yes or no?
it does a good job at killing gram positive bacteria. the gram negatives give it trouble but gram negs give most things trouble. they are the ones that are resistant to antibiotics and cleaners across the board.
although- it would be interesting to see what straigt thieves would do. this is thieves CLEANER. AND it's diluted to a 1:30 strength. straight thieves is what i drop on my tongue- i just wonder.
lab is wrapping up this week so i wonder if my teacher would be open to more of my curiosity satisfying experiments.
:-) Yes, it would be interesting to see what straight thieves would do. Happy thoughtful investigating!
before i even run the experiment i know one thing would result. my pocketbook would suffer.
that stuff is $$$$$!!!!!
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