Introduction to Basic

Equipments Used in
Plant Pathology
Laboratory

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Dayanidhi
Student of Bsc (hons) Agriculture
CGC Technical Campus
Jhanjeri, Mohali
Email:
dayanidhidahiya2
@gmail.com

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Laminar Air Flow 3
• Laminar air flow is used for avoiding
contamination while culturing bacteria
or fungi in the media.
• It provides a work area with aseptic/sterile
conditions for tissue culture.
• For this purpose chamber of Laminar air flow
is provided with:
1) UV lamp which kills all the bacteria
present on the surface.
2) HEPA filters which filters air to avoid air born
contamination and also creates laminar flow in
air current.

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Points to be noted before using
laminar air flow
• Just prior to using the working station, the
working surface should be wiped clean with
isopropyl alcohol or spirit.
• UV lamp should be turned on at least 15
minutes before work is performed.
• Air supply must be turned on while working on the
station.

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 Precautions
• UV light should be switched off before
starting on the station.
• HEPA filters should be checked after every six
months and should be changed when a filter
is ruptured or so much loaded with
contaminants that it will not produce the
proper velocity across the working surface.

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Autoclave 7
Principle:
The principle of autoclave is that the water boils
at about 100 oC, depending upon the vapor
pressure of the atmosphere. If the vapor pressure
is increased, the temperature will be increased.
Working:
For most purposes, sterilization in autoclave is
done for 15 minutes at 121 oC temperature
which is achieved at 1.05 kg/cm2 pressure.

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Precautions:
• Avoid overloading.
• All the air must be removed from within the
autoclave before closing the exhaust valve by
keeping the outlet valve open until a jet of
continuous air comes out of it.
• Sterilization time must be counted not from the
time it is switched on but from the time the
required pressure is built up.
• Ensure that there is sufficient water in the
autoclave before switching on.
• At the end of the sterilization period, allow the
steam pressure to drop to zero and then open the
lid.

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Hot Air Oven 10
• Hot air oven is used for the sterilization of
glassware.
• It uses dry heat which destroy
contaminants by oxidizing them.
• The entire object must be heated to a
temperature for a sufficient length of time
to destroy contaminants.
• Time required for sterilization is
inversely correlated to temperature.
• Oven is generally operated at a
temperature of 160-180 oC for 1 to 1.5
hour.
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Precautions:
• Exposure time is counted from the time when objects
to be sterilized have reached the desired temperature
in the oven.
• Calibrated glass should not be sterilized in hot air oven
since the expansion and contraction can cause changes
in the graduations.
• Rubber goods and culture media should not be
sterilized in the hot air oven.
• After the sterilization process, the oven and its contents
should be allowed to reach the ambient temperature
before opening the door to prevent breakage and
recontamination by cool air rushing into the chamber.

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B.O.D. Incubator 13
• B.O.D. Incubator is used for providing proper
temperature and biochemical oxygen demand to
culturing fungi and bacteria.
• For the purpose of storage the chamber of
incubator is provided with two or three
removable shelves which provide flexibility in use.
• At the back of chamber a special compartment is
formed which is fitted with:
1) Refrigeration evaporator
2) Heater
3)Two powerful centrifugal air circulators For
creating a positive air flow throughout the
inner chamber for temperature uniformity.
• A temperature ranging from 5 to 60 oC
can be maintained by a thermostat.

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Water Bath 15
• This device consists of a container that
maintains water at a constant temperature.
• Water baths have many uses. For example,
Erlenmeyer flasks containing freshly
sterilized culture medium can be placed in a
water bath at 46 oC for 30 minutes to cool it
before pouring into Petri dishes.
• Water bath is essential for measuring
growth of some organisms in liquid media
at specific temperature.

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Microwave Oven
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 Microwave Oven
• An oven provides a wide temperature
range by means of dry heat.
• It is used for drying plant or soil sample at
constant temperature.
• It is also used for sterilizing glassware at
high temperatures.

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Refrigerator 19
 Refrigerator
• It is used for storing stock cultures of
microorganism at 4 oC to save sub-
culturing every few days.
• Stored cultures at low temperature are fairly
inactive and will not suffer damage due to
evaporation of medium.
• It is also used to store sterilized media to
prevent dehydration.

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Microtome 21
• Microtome is used to cut extremely thin slices of
materials to be observer under electron and light
microscope.
• For this purpose various types of blades are used
in microtome like
1) Steel blade
2) Glass blade
3) Diamond blade
• Steel blades are used to prepare section of animal
or plant tissues for light microscope.
• Glass knives are used for preparing extremely thin
slices for electron microscopy.
• Diamond knives are used to cut hard parts of plants
and bones of animals for observation.
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Colony Counter 23
 Colony Counter
• It count the number of colonies of
microorganisms that have grown on an agar
plate prepared from a sample.
• Colony counters can use fluorescent labels
or the contrast between light and dark areas
on the plates to make their count.

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Hot Plate 25
• Hot plate is a vital device used in
laboratory to heat the media and other
samples.
• It has ability to heat the samples without any
exposed flames which is the major advantage
of hot plate.
• It is used to give proper temperature
during media preparation.
• It provide temperature as high as 100 oC
and even higher.
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Centrifuge 27
 Centrifuge
• Centrifuge is used for separating out two
materials with different or same densities.
• Centrifuge works on the principle of
sedimentation where denser particles are
separated from lighter particles.
• For this purpose we can set centrifuge to spin
at our desirable resolution per minute (rpm).

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 Forceps

• Used for holding small things.

•Also used for transferring small solid things
from one Petri dish to another.
• Used for stratchning of plant specimen.
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 Inoculation Loop

•Used to transfer bacteria from culture to fresh

Petri plates and to glass slides for viewing
under microscope.

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 Inoculating Pin

•Used for spreading inoculum on slides.

• Used for stretchning of plant specimen.
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 Surgical Blade

•Used to cut diseased part from the plant

specimen which is used for the study purposes.
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 Spatula

• Used for lifting, flipping or spreading.

•It helps to keep holder’s hand away from hot
surface.
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 Scissors

• Used to cut various things.

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