What Are The Characteristics And Advantages Of Non-animal Culture Media

The food industry usually tests the total number of colonies, coliforms, Salmonella, Shigella, Staphylococcus aureus, yeasts and molds before food leaves the factory. This is often done with non-animal culture media.

Non - animal medium is a combination of plant - derived peptone and can completely replace animal - derived peptone to avoid the risk of BSE. It is a modified type of tryptone soybean broth medium recommended by various pharmacopoeia for sterility test and drug sensitivity test. It is a very nutrient-rich medium that supports the growth of a wide variety of microorganisms. The combination of plant-derived protein hydrolysates and soybean powder hydrolysates can provide amino acids and long-chain polypeptides essential for microbial growth. Glucose and K2HPO4 provide carbon source and buffer respectively, while NaCl maintains osmotic pressure balance.

These media are prepared by completely replacing animal source peptone with plant peptone and thus do not carry the risk of BSE. Rosenow designed the initial medium by adding brain tissue to a glucose broth. These non-animal-derived media are as nutritious and buffering as traditional media, supporting the growth of a wide variety of microorganisms. The addition of 10% defibrinized sheep blood can be used for the isolation and culture of histoplasma capsulatum and other fungi. In formulations containing 6.5% sodium chloride (MV1037), the salt interfered with membrane permeability and osmotic pressure of salt-intolerant microorganisms as a differential selection factor. Adding 0.1% AGAR (MV1036) can improve the growth of microaerobes and anaerobe. Hiveg brain-heart extract broth with 1.5% AGAR should not be used to test the hemolytic activity of streptococci because the glucose it contains has been reported to induce typical hemolytic reactions in blood-containing media. For selective fungal isolation, gentamicin and/or chloramphenicol are recommended.