Science Fair

Purpose of Study

The reason why I chose this project was because I really wanted to grow mold. But I couldn’t just grow mold for my science fair project. I started to wonder if there was really any way to prevent mold. I thought that it would be cool if someone could really find a way to stop mold from growing. That is when I came up with the idea of capsaicin. Since capsaicin is so hot, I thought that maybe it could possibly prevent mold or stop it from growing. I also thought that it would be an easy experiment. It would take time, but it would be easy to do.

How will Capsaicin How will Capsaicin effect the growth of effect the growth of

mold?mold?

Capsaicin is the stuff inside of a pepper that Capsaicin is the stuff inside of a pepper that makes it hot. If you want the real definition… makes it hot. If you want the real definition… Capsaicin- A colorless, extremely pungent, Capsaicin- A colorless, extremely pungent, crystalline compound that is the primary crystalline compound that is the primary active principle producing the heat of red active principle producing the heat of red peppers. It is a strong irritant to skin and peppers. It is a strong irritant to skin and mucous membranes and is used in medicine mucous membranes and is used in medicine as a topical analgesic. Capsaicin is highly as a topical analgesic. Capsaicin is highly stable, retaining its potency for long periods stable, retaining its potency for long periods and despite cooking or freezing. and despite cooking or freezing. Chemical Chemical formula:formula: C C1818HH2727NONO33..

Hypothesis

Capsaicin will effect the growth of mold because it is has so much “heat”. What I mean by heat is how hot the capsaicin is. ( The capsaicin is so hot that it can burn the skin!) I think that it will prevent or possibly kill the mold.

Independent and Dependent Variables.

Independent Variable- The independent variable for my experiment will be the bread with the different measurements of capsaicin.Dependent Variable- For the Dependent Variable, the capsaicin will be strong enough that it will prevent mold.The control group is the group with no capsaicin.

Constants

Here are some of the items that I will be keeping the same for my experiment.

• Same type of bread• Same type of Petri dish• Same bottle of capsaicin• Same environment • Same type of spray bottle

Standard of Comparison

The SOC of my experiment will be the pieces of bread without capsaicin sprayed on them.

Materials1. One loaf of white bread. (no

preservatives) 2. 16 Petri Dishes3. One bottle of pure capsaicin extract.4. Safety goggles, gloves, and a face mask.

( I will be working with the capsaicin so I need to be protected.)

5. 4 spray bottles6. Duct tape7. A cardboard box8. Paper towels9. Sharpie

Procedure1. First, I will need to prepare my Petri

dishes. I will do this by cutting out the center of a piece of bread to fit perfectly in the Petri dish.

2. Once the Petri dishes have the bread in them, I will need to spray on the capsaicin and water mixture. I will need to be wearing safety goggles and gloves. I need to add 50 ml. of water to the amount of capsaicin to keep the level of “heat” to a minimum. One drop of capsaicin is 100 times hotter than one drop of jalapeño juice.

3. After I have my 1st 4 (control group) Petri dishes prepared, I will need to move on to group two, which is the “weak” group. In the spray bottle there will be one drop of the capsaicin. Group three will be the “medium” group. It will have two drops of capsaicin. Group four will be the “high” group. It will have three drops of capsaicin.

4. Once I am done with preparing my Petri dishes, I need to put the dishes under the fume hood.

5. I will have to observe the Petri dishes every day and record what I see.

Qualitative Observations

After two days of starting my experiment, I started to see that one of the control groups inoculated pieces of bread already had mold on it. All of the pieces of bread in the Petri dishes had shrunk a little as well.When I came back over the weekend, all of the inoculated pieces of bread in my experiment had mold on. The control group had the most mold on it and the color of the mold was a dark green. I also brought my camera so I could take pictures of my experiment.

The weak group had a little mold on the inoculated pieces of bread and so did the medium and high groups.On the last week of observing, the control group had more mold on it and so did the weak and medium. The high had the same amount as before. The bread was a little smaller than before too.

80% of the bread was covered in mold.



Data Tables

(non inoculated) Radius of mold growth (cm)

Trials

Levels of Cap. 1 2

Control 0.5 0

Weak 0 0

Medium 0 0

High 0 0

(inoculated) Radius of mold growth (cm)

Trials

Levels of Cap. 3 4

Control 3.5 3

Weak 2.75 1

Medium 0.25 1.5

High 0 1

Graph of Non Inoculated Pieces of Bread

Trial 1

Trial 2

Radius of mold growth (cm)

Non. Inoculated

X axis

Y axis

Graph of Inoculated Pieces of Bread.

Radius of mold growth (cm)

Trail 3

Trial 4

Inoculated

Y axis

X axis

Analysis • In my experiment, the non-inoculated pieces of

bread barely grew mold. One piece in trial 1 of the control group grew about .5 of a centimeter in radius. All the others grew 0, with capsaicin sprayed on them. The reason why I think this happened is that they were not touched with the mold culture which caused them not to grow mold.

• In the inoculated pieces of bread, almost every single piece of bread grew mold. Even with the capsaicin sprayed on them. The control pieces had the most amount of mold on them. In trial 3 the control piece of bread had about 3.5 centimeters in radius. Trial 4 had about 3 cm. Both of the weak and the medium grew some. Trail 4 of the high group had very little.

Analysis Continued

• I noticed that the high group had the least amount of mold. I think this happened because the capsaicin's “heat” helped prevent the mold. The average of my data was .84375. That means that most of my data came out in zeros.

Possible Errors

• I could have got the Petri dishes mixed up and labeled them wrong. I should have done low concentration instead of weak so I wouldn’t get the labels mixed up. I could have put too much or too less of capsaicin in the spray bottles. The capsaicin came out fast so it was hard to tell if I miss counted or not. I could have got the data wrong on my data table. I also could have graphed it wrong too.

Conclusion

• I have concluded that my hypothesis is right. Capsaicin does effect the growth mold. The high test group grew the least amount of mold (1cm). I think that it actually does help prevent mold by just a little. Even the weak test group grew very little mold (2.75, 1). Those who grew mold in all of the groups were inoculated. That means that they were probably already going to grow mold. Not one speck of mold grew on the non-inoculated pieces of bread. I think if you used higher amounts of capsaicin there would be a huge difference and it might actually be able to help prevent mold!

Recommendations for further experimentation

• If I were going to do this experiment again, I would do more trials. Instead of doing weak, medium, and high groups, I would do high, higher, etc. Because I already know that having the high concentration had quite a big affect. I would also do more trials and not inoculate the pieces of bread to see if that had a difference.

• I think that I would use a journal to record what I see each and every day, so that it would be easier to write my results in a data table. I think that maybe it would be cool to test other things too. Like using different things to see if it will help prevent mold. I would let the experiment go longer too. You could also use different types of bread as well.

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Science Fair