CULTURE MEDIA
TYPES OF MEDIA
• SIMPLE OR BASAL MEDIA .
• They contains minimum ingredients that support the grouth of
nonfastidious bacteria.
• CONSTITUENTS OF CULTURE MEDIA .
• Water,electrolytes,peptone,agar,blood and serum,others ie ;meat
extract,yeast and malt extract.
• BASAL MEDIA USES:
• Nonfastidiousness of bacteria.
• They serve as the base for preparation of many media.
• Nutrient broth is used for bacterial grouth study.
• Nutrient agar is preferred medium for: performing the biochemical
tests such as oxidase,catalase,nd slide agglutination test.
• Study colony character.
• Pigment demonstration.
ENRICHED MEDIA
• When a basal medium is added with additional nutrient such as
blood,serum or egg it is called as enriched medium.
• USES OF ENRICHED MEDIA: In addition to nonfastidious organisms
• They also support the grouth of fastidious nutritionally exacting
bacteria .
ENRICHED MEDIA :Blood ,choclate agar,Loeffler’s serum slope and blood culture medium.
BLOOD AGAR :USED MOST COMMONLY.
CHOCLATE AGAR :USED FOR FASTIDIOUS BACTERIA SUCH AS HAEMOPHILUS INFLUENZAE.
LOEFFLERS SERUM SLOPE:USED FOR ISOLATION OF CORNYEBACTERIUM DIPTHERIAE.
BLOOD CULTURE MEDIA :USED FOR CULTURE OF BLOOD SPECIMEN.
THEY ARE EITHER MONOPHASIC OR BIPHASIC MEDIA.
ENRICHMENT BROTH
• They are liquid media added with some inhibitory agents,which allow
• Certain organism to grow nd inhibit others.
• This is important for isolation of the pathogens from clinical
specimens,which also contain normal flora{eg:stool and sputum}.
• ENRICHMENT MEDIA eg:1.Tetrathionate broth use for Salmonella
Typhi.
• Gram negative broth use for Shigella.
• Selenite F broth: use for Shigella.
• Alkaline peptone water : use for Vibrio cholerae.
ALKALINE PEPTONE
WATER
SELECTIVE MEDIA
• They are solid media containing inhibitory substances that inhibit the
normal flora present in the specimen and allow the pathogen to grow.
• They are:Lowenstein –Jensen {LJ} use for Mycobacterium
tuberculosis.
• Thiosulfate citrate bile salt sucrose agar :used for Vibrio cholerae.
• Deoxycholate citrate agar:used for Salmonella .
• Potassium tellurite agar :used for Corynebacterium diptheriae.
• Xylose lysine deoxycholate agar :used for Shigella from stool.
Potassium tellurite agar
TRANSPORT MEDIA
• They are used to transport clinical specimens suspected to contain
delicate organism or when the delay is expected while transporting
the sample from the site of collection to the laboratory.
• Bacteria do not multiply ,they remain only viable.
• TANSPORT MEDIA ARE:Pike”s medium.,Amies medium,VR medium,
• Clarry blairmedium and Buffered glycerol mediums
• These transport media are used for Stretococcus,Nesseria,Vibrio
cholerae,Shigella and Salmonella.s
Amies medium
TANSPORT MEDIA Pike”s medium
DIFFERENTIAL MEDIA
• These media differentiate between two groups of bacteria by using an indicator ,which changes
the colour of colonies of a particular group of bacteria but not the others.
• MacConkey agar:it is differential and low selective medium,commonly
• used for isolation of enteric gram –negative bacteria .
• It differentiate organisms into LF or lactose ferementers {produce pink
• Colour colonies ,eg Escherichia coli. } and NLF or Non lactose
• Fermenters.{produce colorless colonies,eg Shigella .
.Cysteine lactose electrolyte _deficient agar {CLED}.:This also differentiate between Lf and NL
FERMENTERS .
• Used for processing of urine specimens.
•]
ANAEROBIC CULTURE MEDIA
Anaerobic media contain reducing substances, which takes up oxygen
and create lower redox potential and thus permit grouth of obligate
Anaerobes such as Clostridium .eg are
ROBERTSON’S COOKED MEAT BROTH :It contains chopped meat
particles{beef heart},which provide glutathione{ a sulfhydryl group
containing reducing substance} and unsaturated fatty acid.
It is most widely used anaerobic culture medium also used for
maintenance of stock cultures.
OTHER ANAEROBIC CULTURE MEDIA INCLUDE:
• Thioglycolate broth
• Anaerobic blood agar
• Neomycin blood agar
• Egg yolk agar
• Phenylethyl agar.
STERELIZATION OF CULTURE MEDIA
INSPISSATION:It is process of heating an article for 3 successive days at
80-85c for 30 min by special instrument called inspissator.
It is useful for sterilization of: LOWENSTEIN –JENSEN medium.
.LOEFFLER’S SERUM nd DORSET ‘S EGG
MEDIUM etc.
AUTOCLAVE:Culture media are sterilized by this at 121 c for 15 min at
15 pounds per sq inch.
