Bile bovine is extracted under controlled conditions from purified fresh bile, to be used in bacteriological culture media as a selective inhibitory agent for isolation and identification of pathogens. Bile is a yellow-green aqueous solution consisting of 70% bile salts, 22% phospholipids, 4% cholesterol, 3% proteins and 0.3% bilirubin. It is produced from cholesterol in liver hepatocytes and stored in the gallbladder. Bile acids are steroid acids found mainly in the bile of mammals and other vertebrates. They can be used as a selective agent in media for the detection of intestinal bacteria.

Bile bovine has been used:

• in De Man, Rogosa and Sharpe agar (MRS) broth for the growth test under high bile-salt condition
• as a component in MRS to grow Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis 200+,to study the effect of bile salts on cell morphology
• as a component in brain heart infusion (BHI) broth for broth assays to study its effects on Enterococcus faecalis V583

Bile acids plays a physiological role in the removal of cholesterol from the body. It also participates in the intestinal solubilization and absorption of lipids.