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Jerrel Bushel

LD-50 Lab Write Up


Collaborators: Madison Carter, Taylor Cielo, JP Best
Introduction and Problem:
LD-50 is the term used to represent the individual dose it takes to kill 50
percent of a population. This is normally used to set regulations and restrictions on
certain medicines and pesticides to where they are effective but still safe at the same time.
Scientists test certain chemicals to measure their toxicity on smaller animals like rats and
compare the amount given to the weight of the rat. After that is done and the LD-50 is
found for the rat then you can take the ratio and set it to an average human weight. This is
how the EPA and FDA set standards on how much medicine should be given to people of
certain ages and certain weights. By completing an experiment using radish seeds as the
"lab rats" we can determine how dangerous it would be to use salt to defrost roads.
Hypothesis:
The LD for the radish seeds will be set at 10 mg/L of sodium and the seeds that
are part of the dead %50 will have significantly shorter roots.
Parts of the Experiment:

Control Group- Seeds in distilled water


Experimental Group- Seeds in different amounts of salt
Independent Variable- Amount of sodium added
Dependent Variable- How long the remaining seeds grow to be

Materials & Method:


Using 20 ml of the original concentration of salt, perform a serial
dilution to create five different salt concentrations, plus a sixth
with plain water.
Count out 60 seeds, 10 for each water sample
Put 10 seeds into a folded paper towel, space the seeds out
evenly on the paper
towel so that they do not touch each other
Wet the paper towel/seeds and seal in a baggie, be sure to label
the bags with the salt concentration for that sample
After 4-5 days examine the seeds, counting the number of each
that germinated
For the germinated seeds, measure the length of the radicle
Data:
Concentration of Salt (g/L)
0
1.25
2.25
4.5
9
18

Percent Germinated Seeds


84.29
95.71
92.86
84.29
95.71
74.29

Average Radicle Length


19.57mm
29.49mm
17.67mm
13.36mm
9.2mm
4.74mm

Jerrel Bushel

Data Analysis:
After looking at the data, it was noticed that there were not many outliers. Also,
the 1.25 g/L concentration of salt had the highest percent of seeds germinated at 95.71%
and the highest average radical length of 29.49mm. As assumed, the group of seeds with
18g/L of salt had the lowest percent germinated of 74.29% and also had the lowest
average radical length of 4.74mm.
Conclusion:
The results of this experiment did not justify the hypothesis that 50 percent of
radish seeds exposed to 9 g/L of salt would die. Although the LD50 of salt on radish
seeds could not be calculated only based on the class data, after creating a dose-response
curve, the LD50 was predicted to be around 49 g/L. In addition, the concentration of salt
that germinated the highest percentage of seeds with the longest radicles was 1.25 g/L.
This can conclude that concentrations of salt less than or equal to 1.25 g/L of salt are
nontoxic to radish seeds. Because the concentration of salt is used to deice roads falls
above the LD50 of salt on radish seeds, it can be predicted that these levels are high
enough to harm vegetation and aquatic plant populations. Therefore, the risk can be
managed in order to prevent sever harm to the environment.

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