Brain Heart Infusion Agar - Complete Laboratory Solution
Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) Agar represents the gold standard enriched culture medium for fastidious microorganisms. The infusion from beef heart and calf brain provides essential peptides, amino acids, nucleotides, vitamins, and growth factors required by demanding pathogens. This versatile medium supports cultivation of Gram-positive/negative bacteria, yeasts, and molds with excellent colony morphology.
Primary Clinical Applications
BHI Agar excels in primary isolation from clinical specimens including blood, tissue, respiratory samples, and sterile fluids. It serves as the medium of choice for recovering fastidious organisms that fail to grow on standard media. When supplemented with 5-10% defibrinated sheep blood, BHI becomes optimal for isolating dimorphic fungi such as Histoplasma capsulatum and Blastomyces dermatitidis.
The medium's high nutrient content ensures uniform growth essential for accurate antibiotic susceptibility testing using disk diffusion methods. Its clarity supports clear visualization of colony characteristics crucial for preliminary identification.
Laboratory Performance Excellence
Each 19mm x 15mm x 20ml plate (Cat. 0800200E) comes in convenient 10-piece stacks for efficient storage and workflow. Manufactured to SFDA standards in ISO 13485 certified facilities, these plates maintain optimal pH (7.2-7.4) throughout shelf life.
Key advantages include enhanced recovery of streptococci, Haemophilus species, and Neisseria from mixed cultures. The formulation supports both aerobic and microaerophilic growth conditions, making it indispensable for comprehensive pathogen isolation.
Quality Control & Usage Protocol
Inoculate using standard quadrant streaking technique. Incubate aerobically at 35-37°C for 24-48 hours. For fungal isolation, use 25-30°C microaerophilic conditions up to 7 days. Quality control testing with E. coli ATCC 25922 and S. aureus ATCC 25923 ensures batch consistency.
BHI Agar's versatility extends to enrichment cultures, sterility testing, and antimicrobial testing applications across clinical, pharmaceutical, and food microbiology laboratories.
