Brilliant Green Agar A1 Quality – HX-Media

Brilliant Green Agar – HX-Media

Product Overview

Brilliant Green Agar (BGA) is a highly selective and differential culture medium specifically formulated for the isolation and detection of Salmonella species (except Salmonella Typhi and some S. Paratyphi strains) from food, water, dairy products, pharmaceuticals, and environmental samples. It is widely used in food safety laboratories and quality control environments for the monitoring of enteric pathogens.

Brilliant Green Agar is designed to provide strong selective inhibition against competing flora, particularly Gram-positive bacteria and most Gram-negative organisms other than Salmonella. Brilliant Green Agar is achieved through the presence of brilliant green dye, a potent inhibitory agent that suppresses unwanted microorganisms, thereby allowing selective recovery of target organisms.

Brilliant Green Agar also functions as a differential medium based on lactose and sucrose fermentation. It contains phenol red as a pH indicator, which changes color in response to acid production from carbohydrate fermentation. Organisms that ferment lactose and/or sucrose produce acid, resulting in a yellow to greenish-yellow medium, while non-fermenters such as Salmonella do not produce acid and therefore maintain a red to pink coloration of the medium.

Typical Salmonella colonies appear as pink to red, opaque colonies surrounded by a red medium, often with a slight halo. In contrast, lactose/sucrose fermenters (e.g., Escherichia coli) produce yellow-green colonies with a yellow surrounding medium, allowing clear differentiation.

Due to its high selectivity and distinct color differentiation, Brilliant Green Agar is extensively used in standard microbiological protocols, including foodborne pathogen detection, environmental monitoring, and public health testing, and is recommended in various regulatory and reference methods.

🎯 Applications

• Isolation of Salmonella spp. from food and dairy products
• Water and environmental microbiological testing
• Pharmaceutical quality control
• Public health and hygiene monitoring
• Research and academic laboratories

🔬 Key Features

• Highly selective for Salmonella species
• Strong inhibition of competing microorganisms
• Clear visual differentiation via color change
• Suitable for food safety and environmental testing
• Reliable and reproducible results
• Widely accepted in standard microbiological protocols

🧪 Composition (Typical)

• Peptone : 10.0
• Lactose : 10.0
• Sucrose : 10.0
• Brilliant Green : 0.0125
• Phenol Red : 0.08
• Sodium Chloride : 5.0
• Agar : 12.0–15.0
• Final pH : 6.9 ± 0.2 at 25°C

🛠️ How to Use

1. Suspend the required quantity of medium in distilled water.
2. Heat with continuous stirring to dissolve completely.
3. Do not autoclave excessively (overheating may reduce selectivity).
4. Sterilize as per standard guidelines (usually brief heating or as manufacturer recommends).
5. Cool to 45–50°C and pour into sterile Petri plates.
6. Allow to solidify.
7. Inoculate sample using streaking or spread plate technique.
8. Incubate at 35–37°C for 18–24 hours.

⏳ Storage and Shelf Life

• Store dehydrated medium at 10–30°C, dry and protected from light
• Keep container tightly closed
• Prepared plates should be stored at 2–8°C and used within a few days
• Shelf life: 2–3 years (dehydrated form)

👍 Ideal For

✔ Selective detection of Salmonella spp.

✔ Food, feed, water, and environmental labs

✔ ISO- and regulatory-compliant microbiology workflows

✔ Differentiation of Salmonella from fermenting bacteria