• Home |
• Contacts |
• Links |
• Quality Standards |
• Instructions for Use |
• Careers

03 April 2003

New Oxoid medium enhances the identification
of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Oxoid Limited has launched a new selective culture medium for the isolation and identification of Pseudomonas aeruginosa . New Oxoid Pseudomonas Cetrimide Agar (CM579) exploits and enhances the ability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to produce coloured and fluorescent water-soluble iron chelators, allowing the presence of the organism to be easily visualised on an agar plate.

The addition of Cetrimide inhibits the growth of other micro-organisms whilst magnesium chloride and potassium sulphate in the medium enhance the production of pyoverdin and pyocyanin in Pseudomonas aeruginosa . If Pseudomonas aeruginosa is present, this results in yellow-green or yellow-brown colonies that fluoresce under UV light.

Pseudomonas Cetrmide Agar is recommended by both the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) XXVI¹ and the European Pharmacopoeia (EP) IV² for use in Microbial Limit Tests. In addition, this medium is recommended in A.O.A.C. guidelines³ for the isolation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from cosmetics and in the A.O.A.C method for testing disinfectants on hard surfaces^3,4.

The U.S. and E.U. Pharmacopoeias state that pharmaceutical articles, from raw materials to finished products, must be monitored for Total Aerobic Microbial Counts and that they must be completely free from the following micro-organisms: Staphylococcus aureus , Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella species and Escherichia coli.

To find out more about Oxoid Pseudomonas Cetrimide Agar and other products in the Oxoid range for the growth and identification of Pseudomonas aeruginosa , telephone: +44 1256 841144, fax: +44 1256 463388, email: val.kane@oxoid.com.

References:
1. United States Pharmacopoeia 2002. Microbiological Limit Tests, United States Pharmacopoeia, 26 th Edition. United States Pharmacopial Convention, Rockville, M.D.
2. European Pharmacopoeia 2002. Microbial Examination of Non-Sterile Products (Tests for Specified Microorganisms). European Pharmacopoeia 4 th Edition.
3. Association of Official Analytical Chemists 1995. Bacteriological Analytical Manual , 8 th Edition. A.O.A.C. International, Gaithersburg, M.D.
4. Official Methods of Analysis of A.O.A.C. International, 17 th Edition, Revision 1, 2002.