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 h ...

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 a ...

. 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 s ...

bacteria (e.g. ''

Mycobacterium ''Mycobacterium'' is a genus of over 190 species in the phylum Actinomycetota, assigned its own family, Mycobacteriaceae. This genus includes pathogens known to cause serious diseases in mammals, including tuberculosis (''M. tuberculosis'') and l ...

'', 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 o ...

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 mo ...

. It can also be used as a fluorescent version of the Schiff reagent. Auramine O can be used together with Rhodamine B 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