Letheen Broth Modified

Principle And Interpretation

In the early 40s, Weber and Black recommended the use of lecithin and polysorbates to neutralize the antimicrobial action of the quaternary ammonium compounds (1). In 1965, the methodology was accepted by AOAC for the antimicrobial assays and extended their use to all the cationic detergents. In 1978, the FDA incorporated it as pre-enrichment medium for every microbial examination of cosmetics.

Letheen Broth, Modified is prepared as per FDA (2) for screening cosmetic products for microbial contamination. There are great chances of altering the chemical composition of cosmetics by the metabolism of organisms thereby spoiling and causing harm to the users (3,4,5). Direct colony counts and enrichment culturing are the methods of choice for isolating microorganisms from cosmetic products. The word Letheen represents a combination of lecithin and polysorbate (tween) 80. Peptone, tryptone, HM peptone B and yeast extract provide nitrogenous nutrients, carbon compounds, long chain amino acids and trace elements to the microorganisms. Incorporation of lecithin and polysorbate 80 to the medium enables the recovery of bacteria from materials containing residues of disinfectant compounds or preservatives used in cosmetics. Polysorbate 80 is added to nullify phenolic compounds, hexachlorophene, formalin and along with lecithin neutralizes ethyl alcohol (6). Lecithin also neutralizes quaternary ammonium compounds present in the cosmetics. Sodium chloride maintains the osmotic balance of the medium. Enrichment in this medium should be done for 7 days at 30-32°C and then subcultured on Letheen Agar, Modified (M946) and/ or MacConkey Agar (M081).