| Category | MCRO | L21 | Mechanism by Which Holy Basil Protects Human Cells Against |
| Pneumonia. |
| Abstract | The herb Basil is known for its medicinal properties (1-2). For the past |
| four years, I have been studying the antimicrobial properties of basil. |
| Last year, I found that basal protects human lung cells from K. |
| pneumoniae, a gram negative bacteria. This year, I will be testing to |
| see if basil can protect lung cells from S. pneumoniae, a gram positive |
| bacteria. My results, from my project last year, showed that although |
| the basil did not kill all of the bacteria, it was still able to keep almost all |
| the cells alive. Therefore, I will also be studying the mechanism by |
| which basil protects the cells. I expect that basil will protect cells from |
| gram positive bacteria equally as well as a gram negative. I also expect |
| that the basil will protect the cells by facilitating the release of protective |
| substances and inhibiting harmful substances. I will conduct my |
| experiment by pretreating the lung cells with a 1% solution of organic |
| basil powder and incubating for 24 hours. Following this, it will be |
| infected with bacterial suspension (1000 cfu). I will then analyze the |
| viability with trypan blue dye. I will also collect the media that had |
| contained the cells, and examine the changes in levels of proteins such |
| as cytokines using ELISA. A scientific report which connected |
| pneumonia related mortality to increased levels of proinflammatory |
| cytokines prompted me to select cytokines.(3) At the end of my project, |
| I expect the results to show that basil protects gram negative, as well as |
| gram positive bacteria and that it will increase the levels of anti |
| inflammatory cytokines and/or decrease the levels of proinflammatory |
| cytokines. |
| Bibliography | 1. Basil: The Genus Ocimum by Harwood Academic Publishers. edited |
| by Raimo Hiltunen, Yvonne Holm2. Ocimum sanctum L (Holy Basil or |
| Tulsi) and its phytochemicals in the prevention and treatment of cancer. |
| Nutr Cancer. 2013;65 Suppl 1:26-35. |