Science Fair Presentation

I can still remember as a little girl, running through the woods holding my mother's hand. Stopping from time to time to pick dandelions near my favorite river. Sitting at the nape of my favorite tree collecting the seeds of the maple tree which I affectionately called leaf helicopters and sticking them to my nose like Pinocchio. My love of plants and nature were strong even as a child and that curiosity have only increased as I’ve aged. In fact, it is my hope to someday become a Herbalist. Part of that journey to becoming a Herbalist is learning how each plant can be used to naturally eradicate illnesses.

Plants are a gift from the Lord and he instructs us in Genesis 9:3 that “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.” So all that we need for life has already been provided for. It is my love of plants that inspired my project.

When I first started CC in second grade, I recall a classmate putting drops into the back of her throat. When I inquired, she told me that she was using essential oils to heal her sore throat. This was the first time I had heard that word. Since that time, I have been exposed to the world of essential oils and found myself fascinated with them. When I went to purchase the oils for my project, I realized how different they were in price but yet they were marketed to do the exact same thing, there’s a pretty big difference between the $31 dollar Young Living Essential oil and the $7 dollar less expensive brand oils. How can two completely different oils claim to do the exact same thing but yet be so different in price? Thus my project was born.

I have spent the last two months researching and performing experiments to try and discover how bacteria respond when exposed to expensive versus cost efficient oils. My hypothesis was the low-cost oils would be less effective in killing microbes than the expensive more widely known and used oils. I decided to use three different types of oils known for the bacteria-fighting power: clove, lavender, and peppermint. I purchased two sets of these oils, a set by Young Living and a set by a brand called Healing Solutions.

After growing bacteria, I placed three drops on each Agar dish, covered it, and monitored them over the next week. I was able to visually assess the bacteria and was also able to determine my results. Then, after three days I again put three drops of each essential oils and kept monitoring them until the sixth day. On that day, I visually assessed my results. What I found only partially supported my hypothesis. After I concluded my research I realized that my experiment was difficult because of my inability to control the type of bacteria I grew. But overall, the more expensive oils appeared to work more efficiently, but it was also dependent on the type of oil (after my results came  I realized that clove is the most efficient in killing bacteria). The Lavender and Clove agar dishes with the Young Living essential oil appeared to have diminished significant amounts of bacteria, whereas the others did not.