Studying the Effectiveness of Monolaurin (1-lauroyl-rac-glycerol) and Ampicillin on Ampicillin Resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis
By: Steven Corrales and Alessandro Mazzora
Department: Microbiology
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Brinda Govindan
Monolaurin is becoming known as a supplement for gut health and other benefits although there is little research in these fields. Monolaurin is also used as an antibacterial agent and is becoming a known topic of interest. Since our bacteria are resistant to the antibiotic ampicillin, we tried to provide evidence if a combination of ampicillin and monolaurin will provide duel effective antibacterial properties against Staphylococcus epidermidis. The study was done using the Kirby-Bauer method and the viable colony count plate method. My partner and I found that ampicillin does not provide any antibacterial affects in its disk form when placed into two dilutions of monolaurin. In every sample plate, monolaurin was the only compound that provided antimicrobial properties. The plates which included monolaurin, or a combination of monolaurin and ampicillin gave relatively the same inhibition zones when comparing the plates with the same concentrations of monolaurin. As a result, we concluded that ampicillin does not provide any assistance to monolaurin when both are consolidated together on any given plate.