MacConkey Agar

 

In the late 1890's, Alfred MacConkey was working at the University of Liverpool under the auspices of the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal. This group was charged with protecting the public from waterborne disease through developing best practices for treatment of sewage. 

After the first description of MacConkey agar was published in The Lancet in 1900, use of the medium caught on rapidly amongst those interested in water microbiology. However, other scientists recognized that MacConkey's original recipe had some limitations. One of these was the difficulty of evaluating lactose fermentation in organisms that that did not produce enough acid during the fermentation process to precipitate bile. To address this issue, Albert Grunbaum and Edward Hume added neutral red, a pH indicator that transitions from yellow at basic pH to red at acidic or neutral pH. This addition allowed for greater sensitivity of detecting lactose fermentation.

Composition Of MacConkey Agar

Lactose Fermentative Bacteria

E Coli On MacConkey Agar

Snapshot