Natural food components such as honey, ginger and lime will have reducing effects on common cold germs.

 

 

COLDBUSTERS

Introduction

Everyone has had a cold at some point in their life and has gained a general name of the "the common cold". While most colds are cause by viruses, others are caused by bacteria. In this project, i will be discussing and experimenting on those germs such as Streptococcus spp which can cause a cold. They have been some myths about foods to be taken which can stop or reduce the effects of common cold. This research explores the possibility of some foods such as: honey, ginger and lime to stop or reduce the growth or activity of these germs and the cold it causes.

 

HONEY

Honey is made by bees. Bees get nectar from flowers, the nectar gets broken down into simple sugars and stored inside the honeycomb. The design of the honeycomb and constant fanning of bees wings causes the simple sugar to evaporate making liquid honey. Honey’s colour and flavour is based on the nectar collected by bees.

 

 

Honey is one of the most valued natural products since ancient times. Honey has been used as medicine lots of times. Honey was traditionally used to treat eye disease, dizziness, throat infections, thirst, hiccups, Diabetes  and many more. According to modern scientists honey can be used to cure many diseases.  Evidence exists that the use of honey in medical work is highly recommended. It is proven that honey can stop the growth of bacteria completely because of the high content of sugar. Honey also has between 3.2 - 4.5 acidity which can als be another factor affecting germs. Honey also can also contain hydrogen peroxide which is known to kill some microorganisms as well as the presence of phenolic compounds identified to have antibacterial properties.

 

LIME

 

Limes are high in vitamin C and vitamin C is very good for you. We need vitamin c for growth and repair in tissues. Limes may also help boost your immunity from diseases. Scientific studies and experiments show that vitamin C increased the production of white blood cells. Taking vitamin C can shorten how long or how bad a cold is. Lime can also help reduce the chance of heart disease. Lime might only be a fruit but like all fruits or vegetables, lime is very good for you. 

 

Limes are also a good source of antioxidants. Antioxidants are important compounds that defend our cells against a type of molecule called free radicals. High amounts of free radicals can lead to conditions like diabetes, heart disease and many types of cancer so eating or drinking lime is definitely good for you. Lime can lead to better skin. A study showed that women that ate Lime which has vitamin C had a lower risk of wrinkles and dryer skin as they got older. 

 

 

GINGER

Ginger is a common food used as a spice in many foods and drinks all over the world due to its unique and spicy taste. One of the active components of ginger such as gingerol has been shown to be destructive to disease causing microrganisms and can be used in the treatment of these diseases.

 

Ginger is good at stopping the growth of bacteria. They also keep viruses away. Ginger can help your mouth also, the properties of ginger fight bacteria so eating ginger can help keep your mouth healthy. They fight off bacteria that can give you a serious gum infection. If your feeling nauseous, ginger could help you. Ginger has lots of health benefits because of its anti-nausea and other properties. Ginger may help reduce pain, helps in weight loss aid and may also help in a heart disease. Ginger helps us in many different ways.

 

 

CONCLUSION

In Conclusion alot has been said about how effective some of these foods can be and this reasearch aims to find out just how true these are by using honey, ginger and lime to fight something as common as the common cold.

 

Honey, Lime, Ginger, Streptococcus spp 

STEP 1: First i grated my cleaned ginger and lime food samples to get out all the components from them.

STEP 2: Next I made two dilutions of each of the samples by putting one mL of the raw sample into 9mLs of sterile water to get my first dilution 10^-1 . Then i took one mL from the first dilution into another 9mLs of sterile water to get my second dilution 10^-2

• raw honey, 10^-1 and 10^-2
• raw ginger, 10^-1 and 10^-2
• raw lime, 10^-1 and 10^-2

STEP 3: Then i prepared my media plates by transferring 1mL of the Streptococcus culture on the surface of the plate and spreading it evenly.

STEP 4: Using sterile forceps, i dipped sterile filter discs in each of the different concentrations and place in the middle of the plates and labelled them. As well as controls with pre-made antibiotic discs for comparison. 

STEP 5: I put all labelled plates in an incubator at 37 ºC for 24 hours.

The plates containing raw undiluted honey had a zone of inhibition or clearance indicating that it was able to stop the bacteria, Streptococcus from growing around the filter disc. This zone of inhition was also observed in the pre-made antibiotic disc of tetracycline and erythromycin. However, the plates containing lime and ginger and their dilutions did not have any zone of inhibition.

From my research experiment, raw honey seemed to be effective in stopping the growth of the Streptococcus spp bacteria because of the zone of inhibition seen. The same zone of inhibition was present on the antibiotics tetracycline and erythromycin indicating that they are effective at reducing the growth of the bacteria. The other food samples; ginger and lime did not have this zone of inhibition suggesting they were not effective.

In Conclusion it is said that honey, ginger and lime among other foods can help us fight diseases and germs. My research experiment suggests that honey was the effective sample at controlling the growth of Streptococcus spp which can cause the common cold. More research and projects such as this needs to be carried out to find natural ways to treat diseases.

This can be applied in the medical feild to find out more properties of these foods such as honey in fighting diseases such as the common cold.

Experimental errors such as transffering the right amount of bacteria culture on each plate as some may be too much or too little and when making dilutions of each food sample.

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I'll like to acknowledge Dr. William Richard Huddleston and Francene Cusack of the departmenet of biological sciences at the University Of Calgary. For providing me with the space, materials ands samples I used for my project. And I'll also like to thank my sister for helping me. And finally special thanks to my mother for always supporting me.