New medium ‘APRM” for Isolation of Medically Important Fungi from Clinical and Environmental Samples

Abstract

In recent years, scientists have shown a great interest in the study of fungi, which are implicated in various clinical disorders of humans and animals. Globally, numerous media are employed by the researchers in the microbiology and public health laboratories for the isolation of fungi from clinical and natural sources. Most of the microbiological media are very expensive, and hence, several laboratories in poor nations find it difficult to procure such costly media for routine work. This paper delineates the application of new medium called ‘APRM’ for the isolation of opportunistic moulds as well as yeasts from environmental and clinical samples of humans, and animals. The new medium designated as “APRM” (Anubha, Pratibha, Raj, Mahendra) contained 4 g of dried marigold flower, 2 .0 g agar,50 mg of chloramphenicol, and 100 ml of distilled water. The efficacy of this newly introduced medium, was compared with routinely used Sabouraud agar. In all 245 samples comprising of 195 clinical samples (125 humans and 70 animals), and 50 environmental substrates (25 pigeon droppings and 25 soils) were cultured on the plates of APRM medium and Sabouraud agar, and the inoculated media were incubated at 25oC. Many types of filamentous moulds, and yeasts were isolated on this new medium , and also on Sabouraud agar. The detailed morphological studies of the fungi recovered on both media were compared in Narayan stain to see, if any change in the morphology has occurred on this new medium. In addition, APRM agar without antibiotics was also used to recover bacteria from 10 milk,10 stool and 10 urine obtained from clinical cases in humans and animals.The bacteria were recovered from 2 milk, 3 stool and 2 urine on our new medium as well as on nutrient agar. The new medium was also employed to make subculture of few fungi to preserve for detailed study. As this medium is very economical, freely available in India, easy to prepare, and stable at room temperature, its wider use in microbiology and public health laboratories, particularly in poor resource countries for the primary isolation of fungi from various types of materials is highly recommended. Further studies on this newly developed medium to elucidate its efficacy as selective and differential agar for any fungus and bacterium will be highly rewarding. It is hoped that APRM medium will certainly prove very useful for primary isolation of fungi from a wide variety of samples originating from humans, animals, and environment. Attempts should be made to see the efficacy of APRM medium for dermatophytes, dimorphic fungi, and Prototheca.