Effects of Caffeine and Nicotine on Lumbriculus variegatus
INTRODUCTION
An experiment was conducted to study and explore the circulatory system by exposing Lumbriculus variegatus, black worms, to household drugs. Lumbriculus variegatus was chosen as the experimental organism because of their transparent bodies and their simple physiology.
Their transparent bodies help the experimenters to easily see their pulse. Another reason for choosing this specific organism is their body structure—large surface area to size ratio. This feature allows the substances, such as the household drugs, to easily enter their body which then can affect their health.(1) The household drugs used in this experiment were decaffeinated coffee, tea, instant …show more content…

Studies have shown harmful effects during the usage of large concentrations of caffeine; and its result could have been this dramatic change in the change of pulsation rates.(6) After the treatment of the different concentrations of caffeine, the black worms started moving around much more than before the treatments.
According to the results, the columns of nicotine in figure 2, of this experiment the hypothesis for nicotine is accepted. There is an increasing trend in the change of pulsation rates with increasing concentrations of nicotine until 0.25mM, and there is also the decreasing trend in the change of pulsation rates with the concentration of nicotine reaching 1.0mM.
We had expected to see an increase in the change of pulsation rates for the decaffeinated coffee, tea and instant coffee, which was the trend that the graph followed. Their change in pulsation rates were all above the 0 beats per minute because they all had some caffeine in them. Looking at the trends of the change in pulsation rates of different concentration of caffeine, we can determine an estimated concentration of caffeine in decaffeinated coffee, tea and instant coffee. The concentration of caffeine in decaffeinated coffee and tea would be less than 1mM or between 3mM and 10mM; in instant coffee it would be between 1mM and 3mM or 3mM and