I want to test the antimicrobial properties of curcumin, is ethanol the best solvent? if yes what is the least percent concentration i can use to dissolve the curcumin powder?
You can dissolve curcumin in10% of ethanol for antimicrobial test . Use minimum amount of ethanol & use the control of the solvent during anti-microbial testing.
Hello,
The best way when you have to use "toxic" solvents for in vitro assays is from my opinion to realize a highly concentrated solution with your solvent of choice (ethanol , DMSO..). Thereafter, you make a dilution with the culture media to reach your test concentration with the less organic solvent you can have. But, always use a control of the solvent in your test as mention by Madhukar Baburao Deshmukh.
Dear Dr. Edwin Otieno,
With my experience in testing natural products (extracts and isolated molecules, like curcumin) I strongly suggest you to previous test the solubility of the curcumin in the solvent variating the concentrations of ethanol (or other solvents, like dimethyl sufoxide (DMSO)) and adding water, because organic solvents are too toxic to bacteria. We need to test the solubility because the purity of the solvents could vary according to the fabricator and the compound can not be all soluble in the expected concentration because of that.
In addition, we need to use the lowest concentrations of the organic solvents that we can, prefering solutions prepared in water and always remember to perform the apropriate controls to check if the solvents are not being toxic to the microorganims and interfering in the growth, providing a false positive activity of the compound in question.
If I can give you an advice, I suggest to sonicate the solution with no heating for a little time (no more than 10 minutes). It can help to solubilize the sample with less organic solvent.
To remember, if you choose to use DMSO, respect the limit of 1% v/v in the first microplate well (if you are testing the activity by the broth micro-dilution method).
Best regards,
Ygor.
Thank you everyone for your responses. Its really helpful for my further research.
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