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. 2003 Mar;41(3):1130–1134. doi: 10.1128/JCM.41.3.1130-1134.2003

TABLE 1.

Principles of the chromogenic plates evaluated in this study for detection and presumptive identification of Salmonella species and colony colors of Salmonella and other Enterobacteriaceae

Medium (manufacturer) Explanation of colony colors (enzyme detected [substrate used]) References
ABC (Lab M. Ltd.) Salmonella yield blue colonies (α-galactosidase [5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-α-d-galactopyranoside]); other Enterobacteriaceae yield black colonies (β-d-galactosidase [3,4-cyclohexeno esculetin-β-d-galactoside]). 19, 23, 24
COMPASS Salmonella agar (Biokar Diagnostics) Salmonella yield magenta colonies (esterase [5-bromo-6-chloro-3-indolyl-caprylate]); other Enterobacteriaceae yield blue colonies (β-glucosidase [5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-glucopyranoside]). 22, Roure et al.a
CHROMagar Salmonella agar (CHROMagar Microbiology) Salmonella yield mauve colonies (esterase [patented substrate]); other Enterobacteriaceae yield blue or white colonies (β-d-galactosidase [patented substrate]). 6, 10, 15
SM ID agar (bioMerieux) Salmonella yield pink colonies (d-glucuronic acid metabolization [neutral red acidification]); other Enterobacteriaceae yield blue or green colonies (β-d-galactosidase [5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-β-d-galactopyranoside]). 5, 17, 28
a

101st Gen. Meet. Am. Soc. Microbiol.