Decolorizing Agent in Gram Stain?
Is it really important to use 95% alcohol or can I use 70% to 90% with similar to duplicate results?
Is it really important to use 95% alcohol or can I use 70% to 90% with similar to duplicate results?
saffronesque
Favorite Answer
Decolorization will take longer to occur with a more dilute solution. If you have a good supply of gram positive and gram negative bacteria, you could do a series of slides and increase the length of exposure to the more dilute alcohol solution until you get good decolorization of the gram negative smears. Some procedures uses an acetone-alcohol solution in place of 95% ethanol.
?
Gram-unfavorable bacteria have peptidoglycan interior the outer layer of their cellular wall, and gram-effective bacteria have peptidoglycan of their cellular wall a number of layers down. The stain reacts with the peptidoglycan.
Anonymous
i always used isotropically