I called a friend of mine yesterday who I remembered develops microorganisms for industrial purposes. He needs to be able to develop them and then he has to be able to kill them to stop their action. Therefore, anti-microbials are important to him and he works with them frequently. I asked him about testing CS and other substances and he was of the opinion that the process is fairly standardized. He said that he simply sends his stopping solutions out to a reputable lab to be tested in what he called a microbial challenge. In a microbial challenge, as I understood him, a predetermined number of bacteria are placed in a test tube along with a predetermined amount of the anti-microbial material (CS, GSE, antibiotic, etc.). The kill rate can then be tested and measured. He thought that the cost for a microbial challenge test should be about $400. Not chicken feed, but not outrageous either considering that the lab has to maintain cultures of bacteria.
The above information corresponded with the information I got from the company that makes the grapefruit seed extract. Given bjs' response, I thought the question was worth asking so I wrote to the salesman to ask the question. bjs said: "Comparing it to CS seems to be marketing. "100 times, 10 times, on average", what kind of a study produces that kind of precise numbers?" Sam Allen at the company responded with the following: "Regarding testing procedures, these are quite standardized and reliable. Laboratories have to be accurate to get repeat business. Known strains of microorganisms are placed in vitro in measured quantities, and the germicide is introduced in succeedingly smaller parts per million, until no inhibitory effect is established. This procedure generally is performed by hundreds, then tens, until you get into single numbers. (Why the report said 10 to 100 times more effective.) This then provides us with an MIC, or 'Minimum Inhibitory Concentration'. This has been consistently the easiest and most reliable way to test the effectiveness of any anti-microbial agent. Again, I'm no expert. For the record, my business is finance, not science. I work for a bank. But the above sounds pretty reasonable to me. Of course, no lab test can tell us exactly how a substance works in the body. They only know what it does in the test tube. Still, it is a start. I'm not yet ready to spend that much of my personal dollars, but I am considering it. Bob Wells
