Bio 102 Lab Report 1 - Mohamed Aboseria (2)

1 The Effect of Common Household Drugs on Circulatory Functions in Lumbriculus variegatus Mohamed Aboseria City College of New York Biology 102 Lab, Section 2PS2 Instructor: James Bell March 29, 2022

2 Introduction Black Worms, or Lumbriculus variegatus, are mainly found throughout North America and Europe and mostly live by ponds or lakes. They feed on dying leaves and wood, or other small organisms such as bacteria. Black worms are mainly known for their closed circulatory system in which the blood is circulated throughout the body by rhythmic muscle contractions of the ventral and dorsal blood vessels. This closed circulatory system allows black worms to circulate blood throughout their body in a stable manner without the need of a heart. Recent research tested the effect of common household drugs, like nicotine and caffeine, on the pulsation rate or heart rate of animals and insects. A recent study demonstrated that nicotine and black tea can significantly increase heart rate in rats (Joukar & Sheibani, 2017). This suggests that nicotine and black tea can have a similar effect on the pulsation rate of black worms. Another study shows that different concentrations of caffeine decreased the heart rate of zebrafish embryos at different levels (Moond et al., 2010). Other research aimed to test the effect of caffeine and nicotine on daphnia magna, a parasite commonly used for academic experiments. This research illustrated that nicotine significantly increased the heart rate and caffeine had no significant effect (Corotto et al., 2010). According to the research mentioned above, the effects of nicotine, caffeine, or other common household drugs, vary depending on the species used for the experiment. This experiment aims to test the effects of common household drugs on the pulsation rate in Lumbriculus variegatus. Based on recent studies on the effects of common household drugs on the heart rate/pulsation rate of different species, the first experimental hypothesis is as follows: Different concentrations of caffeine and nicotine will have a significant effect on the pulsation rate of Lumbriculus variegatus. The null hypothesis for this experiment is: different

4 Results Table 1 below demonstrates the mean change, standard deviation, standard error, and the 95% confidence interval for 3 different concentrations of nicotine in comparison to water (the control). The mean change for water is -0.14 and the mean change for nicotine decreases as the concentration increases from 0.05 mM to 0.25 mM. At 1.0 mM concentration of nicotine, a surprising mean of 1.28 is presented. This may illustrate that at higher concentrations of nicotine, the pulsation rate increases. Table 1: Statistical data of the effect of different concentrations of Nicotine on the pulsation rate in Lumbriculus variegatus . Treatment Mean Change SD Standard Error 95% Confidence interval Water -0.14 2.34 0.96 1.88 Nicotine 0.05 mM -0.11 5.68 1.52 2.98 Nicotine 0.25 mM -0.97 4.01 1.21 2.37 Nicotine 1.0 mM 1.28 7.28 2.10 4.12 Figure 1: Mean changes (bars) and the standard deviations (error bars) of the effect of different Nicotine concentrations on the pulsation rate in Lumbriculus variegatus. -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 Water Nicotine 0.05mM Nicotine 0.25mM Nicotine 1.0mM Mean Change in Pulsation Rate (beats/min) Treatment

5 Figure 1 above demonstrates the mean change (bars) and standard deviations (error bars) for the 3 different concentrations of nicotine in comparison with water. The standard deviation values are large, meaning that multiple, individually measured, pulsation rate differences were far away from the mean. Table 2: Statistical analysis of the effect of 1.0 mM Nicotine concentration in comparison with water on the pulsation rate in Lumbriculus variegatus . t-calculated 0.4590 t-critical for 95% confidence level 2.12 D.F 16 Confidence level < 75% p-value 0.548649727 Table 2 showcases the t-calculated for water and 1.0 mM concentration of nicotine in comparison to their t-critical. The t-calculated is significantly smaller than the t-critical leading to a confidence level of less than 75%. On the other hand, table 3 below shows the same statistics for different concentrations of caffeine in comparison with water. The mean change for water is the same value of -0.14 and the mean change for caffeine increased significantly as the concentration increased. As the concentration of the caffeine increased, an increase in the standard deviation was also noticeable suggesting the presence of more values scattered away from the mean. Table 3: Statistical data of the effect of different concentrations of Caffeine on the pulsation rate in Lumbriculus variegatus . Treatment Mean Change SD Standard Error 95% Confidence interval Water -0.14 2.34 0.96 1.88 Caffeine 1.0 mM 2.63 2.47 0.82 1.61 Caffeine 3.0 mM 7.2 3.67 1.06 2.08 Caffeine 10.0 mM 8.82 4.91 1.64 3.21

7 Table 5: Statistical data of the effect of other common household drugs on the pulsation rate in Lumbriculus variegatus . Treatment Mean Change SD Standard Error 95% Confidence Interval Water -0.14 2.34 0.96 1.88 Green Tea 3.2 1.04 0.47 0.92 Instant Coffee 3.44 1.68 0.97 1.90 Coffee 10.3 9.5 3.17 6.21 Decaf 2 1.25 0.51 0.99 Tobacco 3.61 14.68 5.99 11.74 Decaf Tea 1.33 0.58 0.33 0.65 Table 5 above shows the same statistical data for the effect of common household drug extracts on the pulsation rate in Lumbriculus variegatus in comparison with water. Clearly, as shown in table 5 and figure 3, coffee has the highest effect with a mean change of 10.3. It significantly increases the pulsation rate of Lumbriculus variegatus. Figure 3: Mean changes (bars) and the standard deviations (error bars) of the effect of other common household drugs on the pulsation rate in Lumbriculus variegatus . -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 Water Green Tea Instant Coffee Coffee Decaf Tobacco Decaf Tea Mean Change in Pulsation Rate (beats/min) Treatment

8 Table 6 below shows that the t-calculated for coffee and water in comparison with the t- critical. The t-calculated came out to be higher in value leading to a confidence level of less than 99% with a p-value of 0.01102. Table 6: Statistical analysis of the effect of Coffee in comparison with water on the pulsation rate in Lumbriculus variegatus . t-calculated 2.6091 t-critical for 95% confidence level 2.16 D.F 13 Confidence level <99% p-value 0.01101607 Discussion & Conclusion The goal for this experiment was to test the effect of different concentrations of caffeine and nicotine as well as extracts from common household drugs on the pulsation rate in Lumbriculus variegatus. The first experimental hypothesis was: Different concentrations of caffeine and nicotine will have a significant effect on the pulsation rate of Lumbriculus variegatus. The null hypothesis for this experiment was: different concentrations of caffeine and nicotine will not have a significant effect on the pulsation rate of Lumbriculus variegatus . The second experimental hypothesis was: Other common household drugs, like coffee and green tea, will have a significant effect on the pulsation rate of Lumbriculus variegatus . The null hypothesis for this experiment was: Other common household drugs, like coffee and green tea, will not have a significant effect on the pulsation rate of Lumbriculus variegatus. The results for different concentrations of nicotine demonstrated that nicotine does not have a significant effect on the pulsation rate in Lumbriculus variegatus with a t-test value of 0.4590. Even though at 1.0 mM concentration of nicotine, it showed a mean change value of 1.28, it can not be safely stated

10 References “Circulatory Function: The Effect of Common Household Drugs on Pulsation Rate of Blackworms.” Laboratory Manual for Biological Foundations II BIO 10200 , Spring 2022 ed., Department of Biology City College of New York, New York, NY, 2022, pp. 85 – 91. Joukar, & Sheibani, M. (2017). Combinatorial effect of nicotine and black tea on heart rate variability: Useful or harmful? Autonomic & Autacoid Pharmacology , 37 (3), 44 – 48. Rana, Moond, M., Marthi, A., Bapatla, S., Sarvepalli, T., Chatti, K., & Challa, A. K. (2010). Caffeine-induced effects on heart rate in zebrafish embryos and possible mechanisms of action: an effective system for experiments in chemical biology. Zebrafish , 7 (1), 69 – 81. Corotto, Ceballos, D., Lee, A., & Vinson, L. (2010). Making the Most of the Daphnia Heart Rate Lab: Optimizing the Use of Ethanol, Nicotine & Caffeine. The American Biology Teacher , 72 (3), 176 – 179.