Arya Gowri Hirsave
6th Grade, Canyon Vista Middle School
Austin, TX
When Arya’s mother recently had surgery, “the doctors gave her antibiotics to prevent bacterial infection,” she says. “But every time she would take the antibiotics, she would complain of a stomachache.” Arya began to wonder why the antibiotics caused so many stomach upsets. She knew that the drugs could disrupt the gut microbiome, but could they interfere with digestion as well? Arya decided to test how different antibiotics might affect digestive enzymes.
Effect of Various Antibiotics on Digestive Enzyme Activity
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Project Background
Arya decided to test four different antibiotics — penicillin, erythromycin, ampicillin and neomycin. She put tablets of each drug into tubes containing different digestive enzymes and the nutrients they broke down. Arya tested amylase, which breaks down starch. To test bile salt/pancreatin, which breaks down fats, she used olive oil. She also tested pepsin, which breaks down proteins like albumin — which is found in things like eggs. She measured the effects of antibiotics on these enzymes with color-producing digestion assays.
Arya showed that erythromycin reduced starch digestion by 50 percent, and fat digestion by five percent. Penicillin reduced starch digestion by 40 percent. Ampicillin reduced protein digestion by 10 percent and fat digestion by five percent. Neomycin, however, did not affect any of the digestive enzymes. “Based on these results, I conclude that neomycin is the safest antibiotic among the four tested, and does not result in G.I. tract side effects due to reduction in nutrient digestion,” she says.
Beyond the Project
“Writing is my huge passion,” Arya says. “Even though I don’t want to take up writing full-time, I definitely want to publish at least a couple [of] books.” She also adores crafting. “I will always be found on the weekends with a big Amazon cardboard box and a pair of scissors,” she says. “I make so many things that it clutters my whole room and annoys my mother.” Someday, Arya wants to be an aeronautical engineer, building spacecraft “so that I can help people discover new planets and worlds.”
