Auramine O is a diarylmethane
dye used as a fluorescent
stain. In its pure form, Auramine O appears as yellow needle crystals. It is insoluble in water and soluble in
ethanol
Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a ...
and
DMSO
Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is an organosulfur compound with the formula ( CH3)2. This colorless liquid is the sulfoxide most widely used commercially. It is an important polar aprotic solvent that dissolves both polar and nonpolar compounds ...
.
Auramine O can be used to stain
acid-fast
Acid-fastness is a physical property of certain bacterial and eukaryotic cells, as well as some sub-cellular structures, specifically their resistance to decolorization by acids during laboratory staining procedures. Once stained as part of a sam ...
bacteria (e.g. ''
Mycobacterium'', where it binds to the
mycolic acid
Mycolic acids are long fatty acids found in the cell walls of the Mycolata taxon, a group of bacteria that includes ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'', the causative agent of the disease tuberculosis. They form the major component of the cell wall of ...
in its cell wall) in a way similar to
Ziehl–Neelsen stain
Ziehl–Neelsen staining is a type of acid-fast stain, first introduced by Paul Ehrlich. Ziehl–Neelsen staining is a bacteriological stain used to identify acid-fast organisms, mainly Mycobacteria. It is named for two German doctors who modi ...
.
It can also be used as a fluorescent version of the
Schiff reagent
:
The Schiff test is an early organic chemistry named reaction developed by Hugo Schiff, and is a relatively general chemical test for detection of many organic aldehydes that has also found use in the staining of biological tissues. The Schiff ...
.
Auramine O can be used together with
Rhodamine B
Rhodamine B is a chemical compound and a dye. It is often used as a tracer dye within water to determine the rate and direction of flow and transport. Rhodamine dyes fluoresce and can thus be detected easily and inexpensively with fluorometers.
...
as the Truant
auramine-rhodamine stain for ''
Mycobacterium tuberculosis''.
It can be also used as an
antiseptic
An antiseptic (from Greek ἀντί ''anti'', "against" and σηπτικός ''sēptikos'', "putrefactive") is an antimicrobial substance or compound that is applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putre ...
agent.
References
External links
Auramine O spectra data
{{Stains
Diarylmethane dyes
Staining dyes
Antiseptics