| Triple sugar iron agar (TSI), a common enteric bacterial differential medium was tested for its capability of supporting growth, sporulation and identification of selected pathogenic and non-pathogenic or opportunistic fungi, as compared to Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) and potato dextrose agar (PDA). The organisms were grown at 27(DEGREES)C and observed micro- and macroscopically daily for two weeks. The pathogenic group included: Geotrichum sp., Microsporum canis, M. gypseum, Nocardia asteroides, N. brasiliensis, Sporothrix schenckii, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, T. rubrum, and Trichosporon sp. The non-pathogenic group included: Alternaria sp., Aspergillus niger, Cephalosporium sp., Fusarium sp., Scopulariopsis sp., and Penicillium sp.; Triple sugar iron agar was found to be as good or better than the two standard fungal media in supporting growth and sporulation of all organisms. This medium also yielded characteristic colony formations similar to SDA and better than PDA. In addition, TSI was found to be capable of providing a quick separation of the pathogenic fungi from non-pathogenic fungi tested based on the color change of the agar: pink (alkaline) for pathogenic and yellow (acid) for non-pathogenic fungi. |
