5101 - Boning UP with HERBAL REMEDIES!!
Sabheen Khan - Adam Scott CVI

Abstract

Are there any other less harmful alternatives in treating osteoporosis rather than going to synthetic therapies directly?
Using herbal remedies is a less harmful technique in treating osteoporosis due to their mimicking properties and similar chemical structure to the body's hormone (estrogen) which plays an important role in the bone formation and demolition.
-Analyzing different scientific journals for the uses of specific plants in the human health and specifically plant hormones and the location of where these hormones are found in larger quantities in the plants.
- Choosing one of the recommended herbal plants by the researchers - alfalfa.
- Analyzing the hormone levels in alfalfa through gas chromatography.
- Specifically analyzing and comparing the levels of these hormones - ABA, NT, RB & FB in both of the plants.
Experimental design
- Planting and growing the specific plants needed for the experiment. (Approximate period ¡V 2 and half months)
- Picking out the leaves once the plant is fully developed - 1 gram of fresh weight.
- Grinding the plant leaves in the grinding machine to get all the tissue refined through these steps:
1.Take the picked out leaves that were frozen in the 15 mL tubes (leaves need to be kept at lower temperatures to slow down the chemistry change rate taking place in the leaves)
2.Add Bilesky #2 to the leaves, grind it.
- After grinding the samples, add the appropriate standards in the tube.
- Top spin the samples, solids are separated by centrifugation for 20 minutes. Save the supernatant. Add 5mL of Bilesky #2- vortex and sonicate the solution in the tube. Place the tube in the freezer for 30 minutes. Centrifuge for 20 minutes and then save the supernatant. Add 5mL of Bilesky # 2, vortex and sonicate it to break the pellet formed from centrifuging. Spin to form the pellet. Save the supernatant. Dry the combined supernatants in vacuo at 40oC to dry down the supernatants.
- Bring the dried down substances up with methanol and transfer them into eppendorfs and then dry down the eppendorfs.
- Bring the dried substances up with the methanol and transfer the solution into the vials that will eventually end up in gas chromatography.
- Gas chromatography determines the levels of the specific substances (hormones) that are being analyzed from the appropriate standards that we added by a graph of a mass-ratio of the molecules.
- Analyzing the results (graphs) from the gas chromatography.
- Comparing the results (graphs) of the recommended herb with that of the non- recommended one.
- Due to the difference in the levels of the hormones found in both of the plants according to the graphs from gas chromatography ¡V conclusion referring back to the hypothesis can be made.
- Analyzing and studying how the results of higher and/ or lower quantities of plant hormones found in the herbal remedies that are suggested for the treatment of osteoporosis can eventually affect the person in a positive or a negative manner.