MadSci Network: Microbiology
Query:

Subject: Antibacterial soap experiment

Date: Tue Dec 8 13:27:41 1998
Posted by Sitham Tharmalingam
Grade level:
School: No school entered.
City: No city entered. State/Province: No state entered.
Country: No country entered.
Area of science: Microbiology
ID: 913145261.Mi
Message:

Hi. I am a fourth year student at the University  of Toronto. I 
found your website on antibacterial soap very helpful to an  
experiment i'm currently engaged in. The point of this experiment 
was to compare  various antibacterial soaps (Valiant, Bacdown,and 
Jergens) and seeing their  effectiveness in removing bacteria 
from the hands.  Might i please explain  this experiment so 
that you can answer a few questions that i have on  them? 
Experiment:Before washing my hands with the soap, i made  five-
fingered print on an agar plate and called this the 'before' 
plate. I then  washed my hands with a proper handwashing method 
and did a five-fingered print  on a separate agar plate and 
called this the 'after' plate. I incubated  these plates at 35 
degrees for about a week. The results: the 'before' plate had  
three types of bacteria on it: numerous yellow and orange 
colonies, and a few  white colonies. The 'after' plate had only 
white colonies, but what was  surprising to me was that there 
were more white colonies on this plate than  there were in the 
'before' plate! i realize that the antibacterial sopa got rid  of 
the two types of bacteria, but why did the third type grow after 
i washed my  hands? Could it be that the soap contained some 
compound needed for the bacteria  to grow? or was there now more 
nutrient availability on the 'after' plate since  no other 
bacteria is competing for food so the white colonies thrived?&
nbsp; i'd  be greatful if you can get back to me on this topic. 
And also if you know which  of the antibacterial soap i listed is 
more effective and how phenol and lysol  affect bacterial growth 
at different concentrations, could you please write back  to me 
if it's no trouble? if you know of any websites that might help 
me, i'd  appreciate it if you can give them to me. my papers 
depend on your answers.  thank you so much. Subi.



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