Not Just Good for Vampires: Testing the Effects Garlic Powder has on Saccharomyces cerevisiae Growth when Introduced at Varied Times

Abstract

              Playing a role in baking, brewing, and the creation of biofuels, baker’s yeast is a remarkably important fungus. In our experimentation, we sought to discover to what degree garlic’s antifungal properties affect the development of baker’s yeast, and if introducing said garlic at different times in the yeast’s development affects that development to a further degree. We expect that the allicin within garlic will cause growth rates to decline due to interfering with germination, and the earlier the garlic powder is introduced to the yeast the more of an impact we imagine it will have. We ran three groups of trials, a control group using no garlic powder, a group that is a five percent garlic powder solution, and a group that is a five percent garlic powder solution which has the garlic powder introduced halfway into the trial. We compared the CO₂ produced by the trial groups in thirty minutes to measure the amount of growth the yeast underwent. Our trials revealed that the earlier introduction of garlic powder did have a more significant impact on the development of yeast, supporting our hypothesis.