Agar Nutrient

Nutrient agar is a solid or semi-liquid nutrient medium containing 0.3-5% agar.

Agar is a polysaccharide obtained from red seaweed. It forms a gelatinous consistency when the molten solution cools. Agar is widely used in microbiology for the preparation of solid culture media because it has the ability to form a strong gel.

Nutrient agar contains nutrients necessary for the growth of microorganisms - sources of carbon, nitrogen, mineral salts, vitamins. In addition, for certain purposes, specific components, such as antibiotics, can be added to the medium.

Nutrient agar is used for cultivating various microorganisms - bacteria, yeast, molds. It allows you to obtain isolated colonies by inoculating microorganisms. In addition, the sensitivity of microorganisms to antibiotics can be determined on agar using disks or wells.

Thus, nutrient agar is an indispensable dense nutrient medium in microbiological research, ensuring the growth of microorganisms and the possibility of studying them. Varying the composition of agar allows you to create selective media for isolating certain types of microorganisms.

Nutrient agar is a solid or semi-liquid nutrient medium. Typically contains 0.3-5%.

Nutrient media are the main and irreplaceable material for studying the life activity of microorganisms. They can be used not only in laboratory, but also in field conditions to conduct all stages of bacteriological research. Nutrient media are selected depending on the type of pathogen: phage, bacilli, bacteria, virus, etc. For example, to determine bacteria living in the external environment (causative agents of dangerous human diseases), universal nutrient media are used. They are a viscous, finely porous medium of mineral and plant compounds, which are further mixed with preservatives, preservatives and other compounds. Such environments, along with the presence of nutrients, are resistant to stress: mechanical stress, freezing and much more. Their versatility is determined by their use not to identify a specific disease, but to establish the type of pathogenic flora. In this case, before studying the resulting culture of strains, its natural localization and sensitivity to antibiotics are taken into account. Bacilli, which occupy an intermediate position between nutrient cultures of microbes and microorganisms, are prepared on a mineral basis. Basic nutrients are added to it. Inorganic elements include macroelements and microelements of mineral nutrition: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, sulfur and others. Of the organic elements involved in nutrition, alanine, leucine, glycerin, thiamine and B vitamins are used. Also outside the body there are solutions of enzymes of plant and animal origin (for example, pancreatic and proteolytic). Phenol, iodine, and antibiotics are indicator microcompounds that make it possible to detect the presence of microorganisms in the material under study.

Various types of meat, lard (or lim), milk, fish and some others are most often used as cultivated material (substrate). The choice depends on many factors, such as the availability and price of materials, the presence of certain nutrients and microbes sensitive to them, geographical and historical factors. There are also synthetic food media, which are systems resulting from complex chemical interactions between various salts, sugars and trace elements. These synthetic culture media are prepared in laboratories and are usually standardized. The presence of a single approved standard helps to obtain the same results when conducting research.