J Bacteriol Virol.  2010 Dec;40(4):213-217. 10.4167/jbv.2010.40.4.213.

Glass Capping of Bacterial Culture Flasks

• Muniaraj M
• Paramasivan R
• Arunachalam N

• KMID: 2168586
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4167/jbv.2010.40.4.213

Abstract

The use of cotton plug as closure of a bacterial culture flask had been reported to have many disadvantages such as inhibitory nature of cotton to certain microbes, chances of contamination during handling and accumulation of used cotton as biological waste. To overcome the disadvantages of cotton plugs, we have developed a new method of capping bacterial culture flasks. In the present study, three sets of experiments were conducted, one was to find out the efficiency of bacterial growth in culture flasks closed by either glass caps or cotton plugs and the second set was to find out the chances of getting contamination of sterile broth closed by either glass caps or cotton plugs and the third set was to find out the evaporation of water in conical flasks closed by glass caps or cotton plug. The results showed that the bacterial cultures closed by glass caps showed better growth with less chance of contamination and evaporation of the culture media. By this method, the bacterial culture work is made very simpler than using cotton plug.

Keyword

Glass caps; Cotton plug; Bacterial culture; Conical flask; Contamination

MeSH Terms

Culture Media
Glass
Handling (Psychology)
Water
Culture Media
Water

Figure

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  Figure 1. A glass cap similar to ungraduated beaker is used here as a cap for nutrient broth medium. The spout of the beaker and the free space between mouth of the flask and the top, inner portion of the beaker ensures free gaseous exchange. The adhesive tape shown is used to hold the beaker with flask during autoclaving and shaking.

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  Figure 2. Growth of three different bacterial cultures in culture flask closed by cotton plug or glass cap, Error bars = 10%.

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  Figure 3. Evaporation of water in conical flasks closed by cotton plug or glass cap, Error bars = 10%.

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