More than 120 prescription drugs sold worldwide today are de

More than 120 prescription drugs sold worldwide today are derived directly from rainforest plants. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, more than two-thirds of all medicines found to have cancer-fighting properties come from rainforest plants. You work for a drug company and have been sent to a rain forest in Madagascar to find new medicines. You observe that native people use a periwinkle plant extract to treat high blood pressure. You wonder if periwinkle plant extract could lower high blood pressure. You think that periwinkle plant extract will lower blood pressure. What is the question? What is the hypothesis? What is the independent variable? What is the dependent variable? What is the negative control? How are you dealing with replication?

Solution

1. The question how periwinkle extract lowers the blood pressure and by what mechanism?

2. Hypothesis is that the extract of periwinkle can lower the blood pressure.

3. The independent variable is the concentration of periwinkle extract.

4. The dependent variable is the reading of blood pressure (higher or lower).

5. Negative control is synthetic drug used in treating blood pressure.

6. Same concentration of periwinkle extract is given two different age groups to study the lowering of blood pressure in two groups. In both the groups, high risk individuals with blood pressure are identified and the effects of periwinkle extract on blood pressure in the high risk individuals is compared.