RESUMO
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)