Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 2021, Honors Theses

From 2005-2006, it was reported that glyphosate, the active ingredient in herbicides like Roundup, was applied to 31% of corn fields and 92% of soybean fields in the United States, making it the most commonly used herbicide (24). Due to its increasing rate of usage on everyday food products, much controversy has risen in the last decade over the safety of exposure and consumption of glyphosate (24). Gastrointestinal diseases and disorders are also on the rise, with past publications supporting the correlation between such diseases and increased glyphosate residues discovered on everyday food products (18). The aim of this study was to discover if glyphosate had a detrimental effect on the in vitro growth of human gastrointestinal bacteria obtained from a probiotic medical food. After successful bacteria isolation, growth of Lactobacillus and Streptococcus thermophilus were discovered to be inhibited when exposed to high concentrations of glyphosate that mimicked residues found on food products, as well as when exposed to the concentration amount deemed as the child safety benchmark, supported by p-values <0.05.

Committee: Jessica Hall Dr. (Advisor); Janet Antwi Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Microbiology; Molecular Biology