A Comparative Study of the Antimicrobial Properties of Species Allium on Four Different Microorganisms Using Well Diffusion, Disk Diffusion, and Microbial Count Plates

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A Comparative Study of the Antimicrobial Properties of Species Allium on Four Different Microorganisms Using Well Diffusion, Disk Diffusion, and Microbial Count Plates Introduction For decades, myths have been circulating about onions and their supposed ability to keep people from getting sick due to antibiotic and antiseptic characteristics. The myth originated in 1919, when a serious outbreak of the flu had killed 40 million people. During this time, a doctor began visiting many different families to try and help fight the flu. The doctor met many families that had fallen ill to the flu before he finally met one that hadn’t. Curious as to how there was one healthy family against countless ill families, the doctor asked what the family had done to stay healthy. The wife responded by saying she had placed an onion in each room of the house. The doctor observed the onions under a microscope, and he did in fact find the flu virus. The onion myth has continued to gain credibility in more modern examples. A hairdresser whose employees and customers typically got the flu every year decided to put out onions around her shop, and no one got sick that year. In another case, a patient that had pneumonia put an onion into an empty jar by her bed. Over the course of one night, the onion had turned black from all the germs, and the patient began to feel better. All of these stories insinuate that onions have something about them that can either prevent people from getting sick, or help those that are sick to get better. According to Rizwani and Shareef, the Allium species, which refers to onion and garlic, has been an effective agent for medicinal purposes dating back to 3500 years ago (Rizwani et al 2011). For the past 100 years, it has been concluded that garlic has antibacterial characteristics against a variety of microorganisms, including gram-negative,

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