Student Research Reports

View Research Report

Pharmaceuticals are various substances used in making drugs or medicines. Some herbicides and pesticides are considered pharmaceuticals. For the purpose of this research, only medicinal drugs were considered. Pharmaceuticals are becoming a huge challenge in the environment as they end up in the water and current methods of water purification are unable to remove them. The purpose of this research was to determine if pharmaceuticals in the water would affect a seed’s ability to germinate. Raphanus sativus seeds (common radish) were used, due to their short germination time and the shortness of research time for this project. Four common pharmaceuticals were tested on Raphanus sativus seeds. Each pharmaceutical was performed on ten trials and compared to the Control Variable, which was hydrated with a water known to be free of pharmaceuticals. The soil pH was tested prior to adding the water for each substance. The pharmaceuticals were added to city tap water which had been tested for its pH level BEFORE and AFTER adding the pharmaceutical to it. Each trial received daily watering with the appropriate sample and monitored for days to germination. Germination was considered when a plant showed above the top of the soil. pH testing was performed using LaMotte WQI protocols (water quality index) and their pH wide range testing kit. All data was recorded and once completed, was analyzed. The results did determine that this hypothesis was supported by the data.