Description
Amyl Media Thioglycollate Broth USP conforms with the recommendations of the US Pharmacopoeia1 for the performance of sterility tests. It is suitable for growth of organisms with different atmospheric requirements.
In 1926 Quastel and Stephenson2 found that the inclusion of a compound containing an -SH group (such as cystine, thioglycollic acid, glutathione), in tryptic digest broth, allowed growth of Clostridium sporogenes in “aerobic” conditions. Later Falk, Bucca and Simmons described the advantages of including a low level of agar (0.06-0.25%) in a fluid medium used for the detection of contaminants in testing of biologicals.3
Brewer reported the value of including agar plus a reducing agent in such testing medium, but it was also found that similar recovery of anaerobes was possible with the omission of the reducing substance4.
Marshall, Gunnison and Luxen5 successfully isolated anaerobes in Brewer’s thioglycollate medium from a sample containing a mercuric preservative, whilst Nungester, Hood and Warren6 and, later, Portwood7 concluded that it was the sodium thioglycollate which neutralised the bacteriostatic effect of mercuric compounds. Malin and Finn discovered that sodium thioglycollate in the presence of a carbohydrate is inhibitory to some micro-organisms8
