Over the past couple of decades, antibiotic resistance has been on the rise with no end in sight. My team goal was to determine if using essential oils could produce new species of bacteria that have not yet been observed and show resistance to pathogens. By utilizing eucalyptus oil and tea tree oil, we hoped to increase the number of bacteria colonies resistant to pathogens that were produced, when compared to the control group. This was done through serial dilutions, agar media plating, and screening against the ESKAPE pathogens. Overall, we found that our hypothesis was correct and the treatment groups did produce more colonies that showed resistance compared to the control group. This could be very beneficial in the fight against antibiotic resistance and could have life saving capabilities.
