Biology Forums - Study Force

i want to get diff concentrations of water extracts for thrmeric and garlic. in the pic, i put a few examples but i need a step by step procedure because i dont know which procedure to follow. like if it's a paste instead of powder and i assume it's 100% would i not be accounting for the water content already present in the rhizomes? i wanna get 10 20 30 40 50 and 60% percent concentrations of both cuz i wanna test them on bacteria.

Hi there!

You want to test pure garlic extract on bacteria at varying concentrations. The problem with this method is that garlic consists of many different components, such as enzymes and sulfur containing compounds. Allicin, I believe is what gives garlic its antibacterial effects. Anyway, if you take pure garlic cloves and crush them, and then observe an effect, you won't know exactly what in the garlic lead to that result (even though we now know it is allicin). You can only conclude that garlic causes "so and so" to occur. If that's what you decide, any one of these methods is fine.

Start by crushing the garlic cloves or use pre-made garlic extract. Mix the crushed garlic with a suitable solvent (as described in one of those procedures, e.g. distilled water or saline solution). Allow it to sit for some time to let the active compounds, including allicin, dissolve into the solvent. Create different concentrations of garlic extract by diluting the initial extract with your chosen solvent. For example, you might create concentrations like 1%, 5%, 10%, and 20% garlic extract.

Does that help?

Yes thank you! I just wanted to ask like how do I assume the extract is at 100% concentration and then dilute according to get different concentration without taking into account the water content already present in the garlic and turmeric?

For me, I would consider that 100% concentration would be using the undiluted or pure crushed garlic extract. That it, you are using the garlic extract without any dilution with a solvent like water or saline.