COLUMBIA AGAR (BASE) FOR MICROBIOLOGY

General description

GranuCult^® prime Columbia Agar (base) can be used with or without supplements as a highly nutritious general-purpose medium. It provides superior growth-supporting properties due to its mixture of peptones, including pancreatic digest of casein, peptic digest of meat, and pancreatic digest of the heart. Yeast extract and maize starch support as energy and vitamin sources. Agar is the solidifying agent.When supplemented with blood, e.g., sheep, rabbit, or horse blood, microorganisms grow on this medium showing their typical hemolytic reactions. Fresh, defibrinated sheep blood is most suitable for determining the different hemolysis forms. Heated blood agar (‘chocolate agar’) is an extremely rich culture medium and can be prepared by heating the medium after the blood has been added.Columbia agar base can be used to prepare Lactose milk agar, and egg-yolk agar [Lactose egg yolk (LEY) agar, Willis and Hobbs agar] for isolating and differentiating the strains of Clostridium spp. according to their ability to produce lecithinase and/or lipase, to ferment the carbohydrate lactose.

Application

GranuCult^® prime Columbia Agar (base) is suitable for the isolation and cultivation of fastidious microorganisms from the food chain, water, pharmaceutical, and other materials; and for the determination of hemolytic reactions after the addition of defibrinated blood.

Features and Benefits

• GranuCult^® offers superior granulated culture media.
• Safe and sustainable due to reduced risks associated with fine dust and toxic substance inhalation, resulting in a safer work environment.
• Excellent wettability, solubility, and free-flowing properties
• Convenient, with minimal component separation and clumping, even under warm or humid conditions.
• High batch-to-batch reproducibility
• Prolonged shelf life of up to five years
• High number of test strains exceeding all regulatory demands
• Granulation technology allows many supplements to be included, with no need to add these separately

Storage and Stability

• Acc. to ISO 17995, a self-prepared base medium (without added blood) can be stored in airtight bottles in the dark and protected against evaporation at (5 ± 3 °C) for up to one month.
• Acc. to ISO 10272-1/-2 and ISO 17995, self-prepared plates with the addition of blood can be stored in the dark and protected against evaporation at (5 ± 3 °C) for up to one month.

Other Notes

• Do not use clumped or discolored medium.
• The prepared medium without the addition of supplements is clear to slightly opalescent and yellowish-brown.
• Before inoculation, allow the prepared medium to equilibrate at room temperature if it is  stored at a lower temperature. 
• There should be no visible moisture on the plates before use. When moisture is present, the plates should be dried for the minimum time required to remove visible moisture, following the procedure as described by EN ISO 11133.

Footnote

We offer two media types: the superior granulated GranuCult^® and the cost-efficient powdered NutriSelect^® culture media, depending on your needs.
The designations basic, plus, or prime are added to indicate the quality control level, from basic quality control to standard QC plus to prime for full regulatory compliance.

Legal Information

GRANUCULT is a registered trademark of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

NutriSelect is a registered trademark of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany