CULTURE MEDIA

- media (sing., medium) that are used in microbiology laboratories to culture bacteria are referred to as
artificial media or synthetic media, because they do not occur naturally; rather, they are prepared in the
laboratory.

chemically defined medium

-is one in which all the ingredients are known; this is because the medium was prepared in the
laboratory by adding a certain number of grams of each of the components

-carbohydrates, amino acids, salts

complex medium

-complex medium is one in which the exact contents are not known. Complex media contain ground-up
or digested extracts from animal organs (e.g., hearts, livers, brains), fish, yeasts, and plants, which
provide the necessary nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

CULTURE MEDIA

LIQUID- Liquid media (also known as broths) are contained in tubes and are thus often referred to as
tubed media.

SOLID -Solid media are prepared by adding agar to liquid media and then pouring the media into tubes
or Petri dishes, where the media solidifies.

-Bacteria are then grown on the surface of the agar-containing solid media.

enriched medium

- is a broth or solid medium containing a rich supply of special nutrients that promotes the growth of
fastidious organisms.

-usually prepared by adding extra nutrients to a medium called nutrient

-Blood agar and chocolate agar are examples of enriched media.

selective medium

- has added inhibitors that discourage the growth of certain organisms without inhibiting growth of the
organism being sought.

differential medium

- permits the differentiation of organisms that grow on the medium. For example,MacConkey agar is
frequently used to differentiate among various Gram-negative bacilli that are isolated from fecal
specimens.
-A differential medium allows one to readily differentiate among the various types of organisms that are
growing on the medium.

Inoculation

- of a liquid medium involves adding a portion of the specimen to the medium.

- solid or plated medium involves the use of a sterile inoculating loop to apply a portion of the specimen
to the surface of the medium; a process commonly referred to as streaking