Coconut water medium in the laboratory diagnosis of cholera

Coconut water, which is readily available for the preparation of low cost culture media specially by peripheral laboratories of this country, have been found to be a satisfactory basic nutritional requirement for the culture of V. cholera. Colonies formed on Coconut Water Agar were characteristic and distinct from the colonies of commonsals. In a comparative study with MEA and TCBS, no significant difference were observed in the recovery percentage of V. cholerae from rectal swabs pre-enriched in Coconut Water Broth. Preliminary enrichment of the fecal samples in coconut Water Broth for six hours at 37 C and inoculating the broth inoculum on Coconut Water Agar seemed to be the cultural procedure of choice in its use in the laboratory diagnosis of cholerae.(Summary)