Harshul Shukla
Article Publish Date: February 25th, 2014
Blog Publish Date: March 9th, 2014
Author: None
Summary
Acetic acid is an ingredient in vinegar which kills bacteria. It can kill many mycobacteria , including the alarming drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis. This was discovered by Claudia Cortesi when some acetic
acid killed a drug she was testing. Her collaborators from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York then tested the acid on many strands of tuberculosis. A 6% solution of the acid for 30 minutes killed off all the bacteria, even for strands of drug-resistant tuberculosis. The acid was even found to be effective against a very strong non-TB strains of bacteria, M. abscessus. This discovery is extremely valuable because in poorer countries, where most of TB occurs, they are not able to afford expensive antibacterial solutions. Instead, they could use acetic acid, which is present in vinegar. Vinegar would be much easier to obtain and afford. Also, vinegar does not have nearly as high toxicity as commercial disinfectants
Connection
During term 3, we had a whole lab on common household items that would inhibit bacterial growth. In our experiments we used E. Coli as the bacteria and these scientists used TB and various others. We used streptomycin as our control. We tested household items, just like the experiment in the article, that included substances such as lime juice. We even tested a type of vinegar called Apple Cider Vinegar but our vinegar did not inhibit bacterial growth even close to the extent of the acetic acid in the article. Our vinegar only had a zone of inhibition of 1 mm. This could be due to the possibility of a low concentration of acetic acid in our vinegar and perhaps that we used E. Coli as our bacteria and the article used strains of TB.
American Society for Microbiology. "Vinegar kills tuberculosis, other mycobacteria." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 February 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140225101501.htm>.
