Title : Comparisons Between Chemical Vs . Natural Antibacterial Agents

I. Abstract: Our group was interested in exploring whether or not the natural antibacterial agents garlic, lemon juice, and tea tree oil worked just as well if not better than chemically man-made antibacterial agents. By preparing an Echericia Coli (E. coli) bacteria culture and following Antiseptic and Plating Technique we prepared petri dishes, viewed the results 24 hours later, and made the following discoveries. We found that the Clorox bleach sample in each dish killed 100% bacteria within a 1315 millimeter zone and the water sample that was used as the control had a field full of bacterial growth. Garlic killed approximately 75% of the bacteria within a 5-millimeter zone, tea tree oil killed 98% in an 8-millimeter radius and lemon juice killed 100% bacteria in the 4millimeter diameter. Although our experiment was conducted using E. Coli as our bacterial subject, our research revealed that individual bacteria are often more sensitive to varying natural treatments. This experiment lead to the possibility of a wider variety of natural antibacterial studies in the future.