The Sterilization of Carbohydrates with Liquid Ethylene Oxide for Microbiological Fermentation Tests

Abstract

The insecticidal properties of gaseous ethylene oxide were noted by Cotton and Roark in 1928.Subsequent investigation by numerous workers revealed this com- pound to be an effective bactericidal agent.In a series of publications from the Chemical Corps Biological Laboratories (Camp Detrick, Md.), Phillips and Kaye (1949), Phillips (1949), Kaye (1949), and Kaye and Phillips (1949) reported on several facets of this subject.Wilson and Bruno (1950) successfully used liquid ethyl- ene for the sterilization of liquid culture media.Since these reports, liquid ethylene oxide has been employed in our laboratory for the sterilization of the following substances used as substrates in microbiological studies: a-conidendrin (Konetzka, Pelczar, and Gottleib, 1952), sodium lignosulfonate (Day, Gottleib, and Pelczar, 1952); lignin (Konetzka, 1952), and decalcified dentin (Konetzka, Burnett, and Pelezar, 1955).The study reported here was undertaken for the purpose of determining the practicability of using liquid ethylene oxide for the sterilization of the carbo- hydrates commonly employed in bacteriological fer- mentation tests.