Amber Mitchell 1

LD-50
Collaborators: Samantha Smithers, Logan Lazaras, & Maggie McCaffity
Introduction:
The LD-50 represents the individual dose of a substance required to kill 50 percent of a
population. This amount can be found using a dose response curve, which is a curve
plotting the relationship between the dose of a drug administered and its pharmacological effect. Sodium Chloride (NaCl), otherwise known as salt, is absorbed by vegetation
along the sides of roads after they are salted in the winter to prevent freezing. Roads
are only going to increase in numbers, and tons and tons of salt must be applied to
those roads as a safety precaution for drivers every year when cold weather comes
around. If the effects this chemical has on plant-life are proven harmful, this could be a
serious growing problem. To show the effects NaCl on vegetation growth, salt will be
applied to radish seeds in various concentrations. By using the method of serial dilution,
we will be decreasing the concentration of salt in a logarithmic fashion. Each set of 10
seeds will have half the concentration of salt as the previous set. After 4 days, the
lengths of the radishes will be measured and compared.
Problem:
What is the LD-50 of salt for the radish seeds, and what effects does salt have on the
initial growth of radish plants?
Hypothesis:
When different concentrations of salt are applied to the radish plants, the ones with the
most salt will have severely stunted growths, while those with little to no salt will flourish
as normal.

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Parts of the Experiment:

Independent variable - concentration of salt

Dependent variable - growth of radishes
Control group - Ziplock bag #6 with no added NaCl
Experimental group - Ziplock bags #1-5 with the added NaCl
Constants - number of seeds in each bag, paper towels, source of water, species of
seed
Materials:

6 test tubes
1 test tube rack
1 (one) 10mL graduated cylinder
Distilled water
Salt solution (12g table salt and 1L distilled water)
6 Ziplock bags
1 permanent marker or label maker
6 paper towels
60 radish seeds
Metric ruler
Procedure:
1. 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.
2. Count out 60 seeds, 10 for each water sample.

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3. 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.
4. Wet the paper towel/seeds and seal in a baggie, be sure to label the bags with the
salt concentration for that sample.
5. After 4-5 days examine the seeds, counting the number of each that germinated.
6. For the germinated seeds, measure the length of the radicle.
Data:

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Group Data
Growth Data

Response (Growth in mm)

50

Line of Best Fit

37.5

25

12.5

0
100%

50%

25%

12.5%

6.25%

0%

NaCl Concentration

Class Averages
Growth Data

Response (Growth in mm)

30

Line of Best Fit

22.5

15

7.5

0
100%

50%

25%

12.5%

NaCl Concentration

6.25%

0%

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Pouring the salt water onto the paper towel that

seeds will be placed on before being put into
the plastic bag.

Placing the seeds onto the paper towel that had

been wet with the salt water, before being placed
into the plastic bag.

Measuring the radishes after they had been allowed to germinate for 4 days. This particular
plant came from bag #6 which contained water
with 0% NaCl concentration.

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Conclusion:
My hypothesis was somewhat correct in the sense that the more salt there was in the
water, the shorter the length of radicle was. One thing that I did not predict that a small
amount of salt would actually cause the plants to flourish. On average, the most growth
occurred with 6.25% of salt in the water.
The negative affects that NaCl can have on vegetation were shown during this
experiment. The sodium chloride simply prevents the plants from retaining water that is
an essential ingredient to photosynthesis. Damage done by the salt is nearly irreversible. This could be a serious problem if sodium chloride is going to be used in future
to deice roads. Plants will be harmed, and the amount of damage will be too large to fix.
One alternative to using sodium chloride on roads is using calcium chloride instead, but
this is a much more costly method.

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Works Cited
Perry, Leonard, Dr. "SALT DAMAGE TO PLANTS." SALT DAMAGE TO PLANTS. University of Vermont, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. <http://www.uvm.edu/pss/ppp/articles/
salt1.htm>.

Patterson, Susan. "Home Problems Environmental Problems Salt Injury To Plants:

How To Save Plants From Salt Damage." Gardening Know How. N.p., 16 Oct. 13. Web.
13 Feb. 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gardeningknowhow.com%2Fplant-problems
%2Fenvironmental%2Fsalt-injury-to-plants.htm>.