The correlation of the oxidation of certain phenols and of dimethyl-<i>p</i>-phenylenediamine by bacterial suspensions

Abstract

have shown that the colonies of most bacteria which grow well only in the presence of oxygen, when treated with a 1 % solution of dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine hydrochloride, assume a reddish tint which progressively darkens to black. This they attributed to the presence in such bacteria of a direct oxidase system the relative thermolability of which was shown when the bacteria were heated to 880 for 1 hour. Nishibe [1926], following Schultze's [1910] use of a mixture of dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine with a-naphthol in the study of the structure of the anthrax bacillus, used this same indophenol reagent in an investigation similar to that of Gordon and McLeod and obtained similar results.