Brannoxtown CNS dishes dirt at BT Primary Science Fair 2019

Some children accept award from a BTYSTE organiser.

Pupils at Brannoxtown Community National School 'cleaned up' at the BT Young Scientists Exhibition 2019 with a project about using vegetable juices for washing hands, writes Brian Byrne.

The school, which reopened last September under the patronage of KWETB, participated in the Primary Science Fair 2019, associated with the main Exhibition.

As a group, the pupils looked at the general issue of dirty hands, and asked if there is an alternative to the Antibacterial hand-wash normally used?

Concerns about an increase in anti-bacterial resistance to such hand-wash prompted an investigation of whether fruit and vegetable juices might be a suitable replacement.

Children explain the 9 experiments - two controls (dirty hands, water) and six juices (apple, coconut, orange, pineapple, prune, tomato).

They conducted nine experiments involving dirt, water, soap, and juices from apple, pineapple, prune, orange, tomato, and coconut water. In each case they created sealed samples of handprints in petri dishes after washing, and measured subsequent bacterial growth.

The results of their experiments suggested that tomato juice and pineapple juice are good at cleaning hands, while the juice of apple, orange, prune and coconut water are 'not very good'.

Their conclusions include the fact that washing with water alone has 'little effect' on dirty hands. The pupils also noted their scepticism about claims that antibacterial soap 'removes 99.9pc of bacteria'.

Children explain to a judge what's special about tomato - the antioxidant, lycopene.

The pupils are interested in further research of the subject, in particular about the tomato juice possibilities in producing a range of soaps, creams and ointments.

The pupils acknowledge the support and assistance for their project of Dr Dheeraj Singh Rathore of the Department of Crop Science at Teagasc.

The experiment also got the Brannoxtown pupils into a story on the Irish Times on Thursday, in a round-up of some of the exhibitors' work at the RDS, and prompted the headline to the piece.

One of the youngest children explains why washing your hands with water is really just 'a waste of time'. Water will not kill bacteria.

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