Auramine O is a diarylmethane
dye
Juan de Guillebon, better known by his stage name DyE, is a French musician. He is known for the music video of the single "Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical ele ...
used as a fluorescent
stain
A stain is a discoloration that can be clearly distinguished from the surface, material, or medium it is found upon. They are caused by the chemical or physical interaction of two dissimilar materials. Accidental staining may make materials app ...
. In its pure form, Auramine O appears as yellow needle crystals. It is insoluble in water and soluble in
ethanol
Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...
and
DMSO
Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is an organosulfur compound with the formula . This colorless liquid is the sulfoxide most widely used commercially. It is an important polar aprotic solvent that dissolves both polar and nonpolar compounds and is ...
.
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 sa ...
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 (''Mycobacterium tuberculo ...
'', where it binds to the
mycolic acid
Mycolic acids are long fatty acids found in the cell walls of Mycobacteriales 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 ...
in its cell wall) in a way similar to
Ziehl–Neelsen stain
The Ziehl-Neelsen stain, also known as the acid-fast stain, is a bacteriological staining technique used in cytopathology and microbiology to identify acid-fast bacteria under microscopy, particularly members of the ''Mycobacterium'' genus. This ...
.
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
''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (M. tb), also known as Koch's bacillus, is a species of pathogenic bacteria in the family Mycobacteriaceae and the causative agent of tuberculosis.
First discovered in 1882 by Robert Koch, ''M. tuberculosis'' ha ...
''.
It can be also used as an
antiseptic
An antiseptic ( and ) is an antimicrobial substance or compound that is applied to living tissue to reduce the possibility of sepsis, infection, or putrefaction. Antiseptics are generally distinguished from ''antibiotics'' by the latter's abil ...
agent.
References
External links
Auramine O spectra data
{{Stains
Diarylmethane dyes
Staining dyes
Antiseptics
Hydrochlorides