AFB-Color staining kit

The AFB-Color staining kit - for the microscopic investigation of acid-fast bacteria (AFB) (cold staining), is a ready-to-use solution used for human-medical cell diagnosis and serves the purpose of the bacteriological investigation of sample material of human origin, for example smears of enriched bacterial cultures. The AFB-Color staining set is based on the Ziehl-Neelsen staining method for the detection of acid-fast bacteria. The set is modified such, that heating of the carbolfuchsin solution is dispensable. Consequently, the release of potentially hazardous phenolic vapors will be avoided.The cell wall of acid-fast bacteria has a high proportion of wax and lipids and hence absorbs dyes only very slowly. The most efficient staining method is the hot staining according to Ziehl-Neelsen. In this method, carbolfuchsin solution is applied to the specimen and heated. This heating process accelerates the rate at which the fuchsin dye is absorbed and thus the formation of the mycolate-fuchsin complex in the cell wall. The AFB-Color Kit offers a modified AFB-Color Carbol fuchsin solution which abolishes heating (Kinyoun method, cold staining).Once the acid-fast bacteria have absorbed the fuchsin dye, it is virtually impossible to decolorize them again, even when they are intensively treated with a decolorizing solution such as e. g. hydrochloric acid in ethanol. Accordingly, acid-fast bacteria are termed as acid- and alcohol-fast for staining, and are stained red in the microscopic visualization. Correspondingly, all non-acid-fast microorganisms are counterstained with an appropriate dye.
Pretreatment of the specimens with Sputofluol^™ dissolves the bacteria from the surrounding viscid sputum and cell material. The package is sufficient for up to 250 applications.This product is registered as IVD and CE marked. For more details, please see instructions for use (IFU). The IFU can be downloaded from this webpage.

Suitability for microscopy: passes test
Mycobacteria: red
Background: green

SPUTOFLUOL is a trademark of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany