Trypticase soy agar

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Trypticase soy agar or Tryptic soy agar (TSA) is a growth media for the culturing of moderately to non fastidious bacteria. It is a general-purpose, non-selective media providing enough nutrients to allow for a wide variety of microorganisms to grow. It is used for a wide range of applications, including culture storage, enumeration of cells (counting), isolation of pure cultures, or simply general culture.^[1]

TSA contains enzymatic digests of casein and soybean meal, which provide amino acids and other nitrogenous substances, making it a nutritious medium for a variety of organisms. Sodium chloride maintains the osmotic equilibrium, while dipotassium phosphate acts as buffer to maintain pH. Agar extracted from any number of organisms is used as a gelling agent.^[1]

One liter of the agar contains:^[1]

• 15 g pancreatic digest of casein
• 5 g peptic digest of soybean
• 5 g sodium chloride
• 15 g agar