The Effect of Medication on Plants

The purpose of this project was to find out how someone could help a plant grow by using medication instead of fertilizer. I decided to do this topic and did a lot of research. I decided to use the Kentucky Wonder Pole Plant or Phaseolusvulgaris.The Kentucky Wonder plant is a pole bean which grows upward. I also decided to test it on 4 plants. One plant with water, one with aspirin, one with an antacid, and finally one with an anti-histamine. My hypothesis was that aspirin plant would grow the tallest because of the salicylic acid. The anti-histamine plant would grow normally, because plants don’t have histamine. The antacid will grow shorter because it would damage the perfect balance of water.

To do this experiment I needed pots, and the three medications which were the manipulated variables. I decide to use 1OOmgs of each medication as the constant variables. I dug a hole, and put the plants in the soil. I watered them once a day, with 15 sprays from my spray bottle. Every day I would measure the plants with a em ruler. I measured in the afternoon so that the plants would get the most growth out of each day. I would mark down my results to see how the height of the plants grew which was the responding variable. I did this for a total of 14 days, or two weeks. After two weeks, I got my results and they will shock you!

My results were very intriguing. They showed a strange trend in the growth of my plants. The plant with normal water sprouted first. It continued to be the tallest plant until about day 12. At day 13 the anti-histamine plant surpassed the height of the regular water plant with a final height of 36.5 em. Before that the anti-histamine water was close but did not surpass the height of the regular water that had a total height of 33 em. Then came the aspirin water plant at 29 em. Finally the shortest plant was the antacid at 26 em.

The results to my project was surprising. It proved, and disproved my hypothesis. It proved my hypothesis because the antacid grew the smallest. It did this because the Ph of the antacid plant was 6 which is not neutral. Unexpectedly, the aspirin plant didn’t grow very well. I believe that this happened due to the fact that aspirin has a trace amount of salicylic acid. Therefore to have an effect you would need about 487mg or about one and a half, high dose aspirin. However what stumped me was why the anti­ histamine plant grew the largest. I couldn’t find any links between anti-histamine, and the plants. Mainly because plants don’t have histamine. If I had to do this project again, I would attempt different dosages of the medication.

Plants are everywhere. Chances are you even have a plant in your house. They grow everywhere, from the arid desert to the frigid reaches of the North Pole. Now they are even growing in the zero-gravity environment of the international space center. They have even been around longer than us! However it wasn’t until 1771 when a British man named Joseph Priestley, discovered that plants gave off oxygen. This was an amazing

_ scientific achievement. Now plants served an even better purpose than food. Due to these factors plants are critical to the survival of the human race. One issue is that they take a long time to mature. What if there was a common household medication that could help these creatures grow? After that moment I decided that I would use this for a science fair topic. I decided I would use plants, and 3 different types of medications.

Research

After choosing this topic I had to make a difficult decision. That decision was what type of plant I would use. To choose which plant I needed to factor in how much sun it needed, when is it in season, and how soon until it would sprout. After that I decided the best plant to use was the bean plant. Then I had another decision, what type? The choice was easy between the bush, and the pole bean. This was because the pole bean was easier to measure then the bush bean.

Pole Bean plant Bush Bean plant

Then I needed to choose which medication to put in the plants. The first medicine I chose was aspirin. Aspirin has many components, one of which is salicylic acid. Salicylic acid is a chemical in plants that involves the growth of plants, and their development. With that information, I decided that would be one my first medications. The next one I chose was an antacid. I chose this because if a plant gets water to acidic it could cause deficiencies. Therefore I tried to see what would happen if I used an antacid. The final medicine I chose was an anti-histamine.

Hypothesis

After all the research my hypothesis is that the plant with the Aspirin will grow the best, due to the salicylic acid. The antacid plant won’t grow as well due to the fact that the Ph of plants water will become alkaline instead of neutral. Also that the anti- histamine plant will grow normally because plants don’t have histamine.

Materials

4- 6″ plant pots

1- Bag of gardening soil

1- Bag of Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans

4- 32. oz. spray bottles

100 mg- aspirin, antacid, anti-histamine

Filtered water

A em ruler for measuring plants

A laptop or notebook (for writing down heights) A sunny area (To place plants)

Variables

Manipulated Variable: The medicine in the water of the plants

Responding Variable: The height of the plant, the healthiness of the plants, and the greenness of the plant

Constant Variables: Pot size, water spay amount, dirt type, seed type, location of plant, and the amount of milligrams.

Procedure

1. Fill spray bottles with 19 oz. of filtered water

2. Place 100 mgs of medication into separate bottles

3. Let medication dissolve for about 24 hours

4. Fill all 4 pots with dirt

5. Dig hole about 1′ deep into the dirt in each of the pots

6. Place a seed in the hole

7. Cover up the plants with a thin layer of dirt

8. Water the plants with 15 sprays daily

9. Measure each of the plants daily, with centimeter ruler

10. Keep track of their height’s in a notebook, or a laptop

Results

The results of my experiment were very interesting, and surprising. They approved, and disproved my hypothesis. Here were my results:

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LineGraphofPlantHeightBarGraphofPlantHeight

My results are displayed above. They show a strange trend in the growth of my

plants. The plant with normal water sprouted first. It continued to be the tallest plant until

1

about day 12. At day 128J the anti-histamine plant surpassed the height of the regular water with a final height of 36.5 em. Before that the anti-histamine water was close but did not surpass the height of the regular water that had a total height of 33 em. The third tallest plant was the aspirin water plant at 29 em. Finally the shortest plant was the antacid 26 em.

Plants After being potted                                                  Plants at end of experiment

Conclusion

The results to my project was surprising. It proved and disproved my hypothesis. It proved my hypothesis because the antacid grew the smallest It did this because the Ph of the antacid plant was 6 which is not neutral. Neutral is what the plants need which is at number 7 on the Ph scale. Just to make sure there was nothing wrong with my water, I tested the Ph of my tap water, and came out at 7. Unexpectedly, the aspirin plant didn’t grow very well. I believe that this happened due to the fact that aspirin has a trace amount of salicylic acid. Therefore to have an effect you would need about 487mg or about one and a half, high dose aspirin. However what stumped me was why the anti-histamine plant grew the largest. I couldn’t find any links between anti-histamine, and the plants. Mainly because plants don’t have histamine. If I had to do this project again, I would attempt different dosages of the medications.