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Sabouraud agar or Sabouraud's dextrose agar (SDA)

Sabaroud agar

Image A shows a plate containing Sabouraud Agar before cultivation. Image B shows the same kind of plate on which Hanseniaspora uvarum has been cultivated at 30°C during 5 days.  - Click on the image to enlarge it (opens in a new window/tab).

Image: Ingrid Hansson (BVF,SLU), Lise-Lotte Fernström (BVF, SLU) and Karl-Erik Johansson (BVF, SLU).

Use

Sabouraud agar is mainly used to grow dermatophytes and other types of yeasts and molds. Sabaroudagar can also be used to grow filamentous bacteria, e.g. species within the genus Nocardia.

The medium contains:

  •  dextrose (which is another name for D-glucose)
  •  peptone (hydrolyzed proteins, which contains short peptodes and amino acids)
  •  agar (jelly-forming substance)

The pH of the medium should be 5.6 and this relatively low pH inhibits the growth of many bacteria.

Other comments

This medium is not always recommended for primary isolation, as it is not nutritious enough for some fastidious fungi. This is especially true for many of the dimorphic fungi.

Updated: 2021-05-14.

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences