Description

Rainbow Agar O157 has both selective and chromogenic properties that make it particularly useful for isolating pathogenic E. coli strains. The medium contains chromogenic substrates that are specific for two E. coli-associated enzymes: ß-galactosidase (a blue-black chromogenic substrate) and ß-glucuronidase (a red chromogenic substrate).

Rainbow Agar Salmonella utilizes an enhanced detection chemistry to determine H₂S production among Salmonella spp., Black colonies are formed by even weak H₂S producing strains. In addition, novel selective agents increase the recovery rate of Salmonella while inhibiting the growth of other enteric bacteria and inhibiting H₂S production by Citrobacterand other H₂S positive enteric species.

Rainbow Agar Shigella/Aeromonas was developed to directly isolate these important causative agents of gastroenteritis. The medium is inhibitory to gram-postive bacteria and most non-enteric gram-negative bacteria, but is not toxic to the target species. Most other enteric species including Escherichia coli are significantly inhibited, and colonies that grow are blue. Strains of all four Shigella species (sonnei, flexneri, boydii and dysenteriae) as well as some Aeromonas species (hydrophila, jandaei and tructi) grow as large or medium-sized orange-red colonies.