Bioassays are often performed to assess the biological effects of a substance on an organism. For this project, a bioassay was developed to test antibiotic activity of numerous natural product extracts. This was done by inoculating tryptic soy agar plates with small volumes of bacterial cultures (either Bacillus subtilis or Escherichia coli) to prepare bacterial lawns. Upon these lawns were placed antibiotic controls and small filter disks soaked with dilutions of natural product extracts; these lawns were then incubated overnight. Hundreds of trials were performed to test the degree of bacterial growth inhibition each extract provided. This presentation will offer experimental details of the development of the bioassay, extracts tested, and efficacy of the tested extracts.

Development of a simple bioassay to identify antibiotic properties of natural products

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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