Background
Honey
Honey has been used as folk medicine for a countless number of years. Honey has been used as a treatment for: wounds, burns, bed wetting, sleeplessness, hyperactivity, congestion, fatigue, sore throat, and stress. Honey is a natural antibiotic and it is impossible for bacteria to survive in it, because it releases hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Honey is produced by secretion of the honey comb and it has many natural antibiotics found within it. Honey also has great nutritional value and is preferred over white sugar. When applied to cuts and burns, honey cools, and helps remove the pain, and since it is a natural antibiotic, it prevents infection. Honey is also used to treat hyperactivity because is a mild sedative. Honey is also being studied as a way to treat osteoporosis. Research shows that a teaspoon of honey per day aids calcium utilization and can prevent osteoporosis. A common fact worldwide is that people who regularly ingest honey live longer. Another fact is that beekeepers suffer less from cancer and arthritis than any other occupation. Honey can also be used as a preservative because it is a natural antibiotic, use it to replace sugars in foods, just reduce water to compensate for the moisture in honey.
Garlic
Garlic is one of the best natural antibiotics. Garlic kills bacteria and protects the body from strands of bacteria that can cause infection in the body. Garlic has similar properties to penicillin and other antibiotics. Garlic has long been considered an herbal wonder drug and has a reputation for preventing common aliments like the cold even to the plague. It has been used extensively in herbal medicine also called phytotherapy. Raw garlic is used by some to treat the symptoms of acne and there is some evidence that it can assist in managing high cholesterol levels. It can even be effective as a natural mosquito repellent. In general, a stronger tasting clove of garlic has more sulfur content and hence more medicinal value it's likely to have. Some people have suggested that organically grown garlic tends towards a higher sulfur level and hence greater benefit to health.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon has been well-researched for its effects on blood platelets. Platelets make up blood and are meant to clump together under emergency circumstances, such as physical injury, as a way to stop bleeding. The cinnaldehyde in cinnamon helps prevent unwanted clumping of blood platelets. It accomplishes this by inhibiting the release of an inflammatory fatty acid called arachidonic acid from platelet membranes and reduces the formation of an inflammatory messaging molecule. Cinnamon's essential oils also qualify it as an "anti-microbial" food, and cinnamon has been studied for its ability to help stop the growth of bacteria as well as fungi.
Cinnamon's antimicrobial properties make it useful as an alternative to traditional food preservatives.
E. coli
E.coli is a gram negative bacterium that is rod shaped and usually lives in mammal’s digestive tract. Optimal growth of E. coli occurs at 37°C ,or human body temperature. Strains that possess flagella can swim and are motile. The flagella have a peritrichous arrangement. E. coli and related bacteria possess the ability to transfer DNA via bacterial conjugation, transduction or transformation, which allows genetic material to spread horizontally through an existing population. This process led to the spread of the gene encoding shiga toxin from Shigella to E. coli O157:H7, carried by a bacteriophage.
Phytochemicals-
Phytochemicals are chemicals within a plant that are non-nutritive. They have protective or disease preventative properties. Plants produce these chemicals to protect themselves, but they can protect humans against diseases also. Some of the known phytochemicals are lycopene in tomatoes, isoflavones in soy and flavanoids in fruits.
Antibiotics
Penicillin was the first antibiotic, and it was discovered accidentally from a mold culture. Antibiotics are the most prescribed medications in use, today. Antibiotics are very useful for treating bacterial infections not viral infections or fungal infections. There are over 100 antibiotics but the main groups include penicillins, cephalosporins, macrolides, fluoroquinolones, sulfonamides, tetreacyclines, and aminoglycosides. Every antibiotic is effective only on certain types of infections. Most of the time, a doctor prescribes an antibiotic based on the most likely cause of the infection.
Autoclave
Always wear goggles and aprons when using the autoclave.
The bottom of the autoclave should have about two inches of clean distilled
water before operation. Check the pressure release valve prior to its use (it
should be clear).Use potholders when opening or handling hot surfaces.
Opening the autoclave can be done only after it has cooled (gauge should
read zero) and all the steam has been allowed to escape. Place the control
knob in the straight up position. This allows the unit to operate at 16-21 psi
range.
BSL 1 Aseptic Techniques
Upon entering the lab, wash hands all the way to the elbows with antibacterial soap. Before and during experimentation wear rubber gloves, apron, and goggles. All glass and other materials should be autoclaved for 30minutes at 20 psi, 120 degrees Celsius. Any open flask, container, or beaker should be covered with aluminum foil when placed in the autoclave. Use 10% bleach solution and wipe down the lab area and tabletop. Transfer of any culture will be done with a mechanical pipette. Place a biohazard sign in plain view for all to see. Use sterile loops and needles that don’t need to be flamed. The top of the culture-tube will be flame heated before inserting a loop or needle for culture transfer.
Calcium chloride
Calcium chloride is a white crystalline, granular powder. It is odorless and can be harmful if swallowed. When it decomposes, it produces calcium oxide and hydrochloric acid or chlorine gas. It's unstable when in contact with strong acids. Calcium chloride prevents spoilage of food and is popularly used as a preservative in packed foods. It also helps to keep the food healthy and fresh for a longer duration. As pasteurized milk greatly diminishes in calcium content, calcium chloride is added in small amounts to aid coagulation and form quality curd. Calcium chloride is also an important cheese making additive. The water solution of calcium chloride is used in refrigerators. The solution is an essential cooling agent for making ice.
Bacterial Transformation
Bacterial transformation allows researchers to insert their recombinant DNA into bacteria, which then multiply making more copies of the transformed bacteria. The transformed plasmid can also be used by the bacteria as a template to make recombinant protein. E. coli that is sensitive to ampicillin. The bacteria are then spread over a plate that contains ampicillin. The ampicillin provides a selective pressure because only bacteria that have acquired the plasmid can grow on the plate. Therefore, as long as you grow the bacteria in ampicillin, it will need the plasmid to survive and it will continually replicate it, along with your gene of interest that has been inserted to the plasmid.
Plasmid
A plasmid is a small circular piece of DNA that contains important genetic information for the growth of bacteria. In nature, this information is often a gene that encodes a protein that will make the bacteria resistant to an antibiotic. Plasmids probably came about as a result of bacteria evolving in close proximity to other heterotrophs. Bacteria often grow in the same environment as molds and fungi and compete with them for food (complex organic material). As a result, molds and fungi have evolved to make toxins that kill bacteria. Bacteria then evolved to make proteins that inactivate the toxins. The bacteria share this vital information by passing it among themselves in the form of genes in plasmids. Plasmids were discovered in the late sixties. A plasmid containing resistance to an antibiotic is used as a vector. The gene of interest is inserted into the vector plasmid and this newly constructed plasmid is then put into E. coli that is sensitive to an antibiotic.
Ampicillin
Ampicillin is a beta-lactam antibiotic that has been used to treat bacterial infections since the 1900’s. Until the introduction of ampicillin, penicillin therapies had only been effective against gram-positive bacteria such as staphylococci and streptococci. Ampicillin also demonstrated activity against gram-negative organisms such as H. influenzae, and coliforms. Ampicillin is part of the aminopenicillin family and is roughly equivalent to its successor, amoxicillin in terms of spectrum and level of activity. It can sometimes result in reactions that range in severity from a rash to potentially lethal allergic reactions such as anaphylaxis.
Bioluminescence
Many animals use the light they produce the same way people use flashlights or searchlights. Glowing animals, on the other hand, typically create light through luminescence. In luminescent animals, chemical compounds mix together to produce a glow. It's a lot like the way the substances inside a light stick combine to make light. It neither requires nor generates much heat, so it's sometimes known as cold light. Scientists had a basic idea of the difference between incandescence and luminescence as far back as 2,500 years ago. In the 1600s, researchers began to discover exactly how animals make their own light. But since different animals use different substances, scientists still don't know precisely how every bioluminescent species makes light. Bioluminescence can also be difficult to study, since many animals exhaust their luminescent abilities when captured. In other cases, the process of capture destroys the light-producing organs.
