Fungi that multiply on skin are called dermatophytes. Dermatomycosis is a general term for mycotic parasitism of the skin. These can be isolated on differential selective media containing generous amounts of glucose and antibiotics to suppress bacterial growth (1). Fungobiotic Agar is used for isolation of pathogenic fungi from mixed microbial flora. Georg et al (2) recommended addition of two antibiotics cycloheximide and chloramphenicol for the primary isolation of dermatophytes and fungi which cause systemic disease as none of the dermatophytes are sensitive to these antibiotics but some fungi causing systemic disease may be inhibited by one or the other antibiotic (3). For this reason media without antibiotics must be used in parallel with Fungobiotic Agar. Soya peptone and dextrose provide essential nutrients for fungal growth. Cycloheximide inhibits saprophytic fungi, certain yeasts and moulds (4,5) while chloramphenicol has an inhibitory action on the accompanying bacteria (6,7). Temperature of incubation affects the sensitivity of certain systemic pathogenic fungi to cycloheximide and chloramphenicol (8). It is therefore recommended that incubation should be carried out at 25-30 deg C.
Application: Recommended for the Isolation of Dermatophytes and Many other Pathogenic Fungi