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Experimental Lab: Are there really bacteria living in

yogurt?
26/1/15
Jidd, Vorawan Chanvorawit
Nice, Sirirat Jittakajornkait
June, Thanatcha Jantanapongpun
Achi, Achima Siamnikorn
Namfon, Sirimon Thepchanakul

Introduction:
In the other name of micro-biome is called gut
bacteria. They are a bacteria that give many benefits for
our body such as prevent diseases and digests
carbohydrates from vegetable. The microbiome have
population that more than 100 trillion microorganisms
most of them live in digestive system and elsewhere in
our bodies. Microbiome live in digestive system such as in
large intestine (colon), stomach and small intestine(some parts in small intestine).
In addition, the microbiome can still alive in the place that has no oxygen which is
called anaerobic. Microbiome do a lot of jobs in our digestive system. They digest
carbohydrates, absorb minerals, maintain acidic pH. In the same way, they also help
to create Vitamin K and some of Vitamin B in our body. Without
microbiome, the nutrients from food would be wasted. Actually, the
bacteria that are benefit for our body is called as the probiotics
which mean for life. Example of the probiotics food are yogurt, miso
soup, kimchi and fermented food. The necessary preparation for the
food is the process of fermentation, it is to preserved the food to let
the bacteria grow up. In this experiment, we hope to find out how
the bacteria grow and grow Lactobacillus bulgaricus and
Streptococcus thermophilus which are the example of bacterial
species that could find in yogurt.

Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is to see that which type of food would
have the most of bacteria after doing the experiment.

Hypothesis:
- If we put controlled water in the agar plate, then it will not
have any bacteria.
- If we put betagen in the agar place, then it will have a
little of bacteria.

If we put activia in the agar place, then it will have a lot of

bacteria.

Materials:
lab coat, gloves, goggles, medicine dropper, glass spreader, 3 agar plates, paper
towel, marker, alcohol, diluted yogurt, distilled water, stretchy tape, yakult, activia,
lamp and glass spreader, plastic container with lid, clay, candle (for the anaerobic
environment)

Procedure:
1. Put on lab coat, gloves and goggles.
2. Obtain medicine dropper, glass spreader, 3 agar plates.
3. Moisten a paper towel with 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol to prevent
bacterial contamination.
4. Place your 3 agar plates on the paper towel. Do not open them.
5. Using a marker, label the bottom of each agar plates 1-3
6. Suck up rubbing alcohol into the medicine dropper. Hold for 10
seconds. Squirt it out onto a paper towel. Use the paper towel to rub the
outside of the dropper.
7. Hold the dropper over the lamp to burn off the alcohol.
8. Set the dropper down but propped up onto a paper towel so that the
tip of the dropper does not touch anything.
9. Obtain the diluted yogurt.
10.Using the sterilized dropper suck up yogurt to fill the towel so that the
tip of the dropper. Do not touch anything other than the yogurt. Continue to
hold the dropper in one hand.
11.Open 2 agar plates and add a few drops of the yogurt to the plates,
one at a time. Add the drops into the center of the plates, one drop on top of
the other.
12.Do not set the lids to the agar plates down on anything.
13.Put the lids back onto the agar plates.
14.Onto the 3rd agar plate, add a few drops of distilled water, for the
control.
15.Dip the glass spreader into rubbing alcohol for 10 seconds. Hold it over
the lamp to burn off the alcohol.
16.Do not let the triangular part of the glass spreader touch anything.
Hold it in your hand the whole time.
17.Open each agar plate (do not put the lids down) and use the glass
spreader to spread the diluted yogurt in a specific pattern. Start with agar
plate 3 to prevent contamination on the control with diluted yogurt. Do not
push too hard so that you break the agar.
18.After you finish each plate, quickly put its lid back on. Wipe the glass
spreader clean between each plate.
19.Let the plates sit for a minute to help the yogurt attach to the agar.
20.The lab instructor will prepare an anaerobic chamber to place all of the
groups agar plates into. The anaerobic chamber consists of a plastic

container and a candle. When the candle is lit, place the lid onto the
container and cover the outside with clay. The candle will eventually go out,
leaving a container with no oxygen.
21.Wait a few days, then check on your agar plates.

$ Results:

Analyzing Results:
In this experiment, we did not success as much as we want because we got
some bacteria for activia and did not have any bacteria for yakult. Moreover, in our
controlled group(distilled water), we have a lot of contamination of others bacteria
that we did not need it in our plate. In our plates, we got different all of bacteria and
they are in a different of species. In the first plate, our activia has a round shape in
light color but it is form a group around the plate. In second plate, our betagen has
thin sheet in light yellow but it is not the bacteria that we need because it is not the
species of betagen bacteria. In the last plate, our controlled (distilled water) was
contaminated with bacteria. In addition, these might happen because we open an
agar plate too much that the air could come in. When we clean the medicine
dropper, some alcohol might left and when we put activia or betagen in, it kills the
bacteria but not all of it so it grows around the agar plate. Again, our water was
contaminated with so many bacteria. Its full of many bacteria which was
unexpectable. This might happen because we clean the medicine dropper not
efficiently and therere still some of activia and betagen in it and the result was our
control was contaminated. Our group had followed all steps from procedures but we
might not care about the bacteria in our mouth might fall into the agar plates and
we opened the agar plates too much so the air might come in the plates. Moreover,
during the lab when we hold the medicine dropper to burn off the alcohol, it was
burned because we get the dropper near the lamp too close.

Conclusion:
As a result, this experiment let us to learn about the growing of gut bacteria
or microbiome. We did two types of bacteria and one controlled group. There are
activia, yakult, and distilled water. In the same way, we have to be very careful for
every parts because we must do everything neat and clean. So, we have to begin
with clean equipments by using alcohol and lamp efficiently. Then, drop the yogurt
and control(distilled water) to each 3 agar plates and enclose them with stretchy
tape and let them grow without any air or oxygen for few days. By the way, we did
so many things but we might also did some mistakes so that our bacterias were not
as same as we expected. Our first plate bacteria, we got only some bacteria for
activia. Our second plate bacteria, we did not get any bacteria for betagen.
Surprisingly, our third plate bacteria is distilled water but it had a lot of
contamination of other bacteria. From this result showed that we made a lot of
errors because of contamination in distilled water and empty bacteria in betagen
plate. Another problems in our group, some of group member made medicine
dropper burn because got too close with burner. It was very dangerous as well as
this mistakes also gave us some new excited experiences and not tried to do it

again. Next experiment, we should make more careful than this experiment. We
have to make sure that the materials is clean enough. For instance, we should make
sure that our dropper did not have any of alcohol or yogurt left because it can make
our result not correctly. Similarly, in our process we should not talk during the
experiment. For example, when we dropped the substances in plate we must pay
attention to it and do not make it causes of contamination again. The most
important things is to listen the instructions carefully because if we lack of
attention, it can cause a big problems to us. Surely, we have learned a lot of
knowledge about how bacteria grow as well as how to use lab equipment.

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