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Jus
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Registered: 09/27/19
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Has anyone tried using beetroot to colour agar?
#26762085 - 06/21/20 02:03 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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I'm new to the hobby, and I've been cooking up agar batches.
The first couple of times I'd added pink food colouring that I had lying around the cupboard, only to find the colour totally removed upon pressure cooking. Took my stupid ass another unsuccessful try with excessive food colouring to finally read the bottle and see that it's temperature sensitive and discolours when baked 
No matter, colour is a 'nice to have' and I sense plenty more agar batches in my future to try again with heat resistant colouring.
However, I was *this* close to MacGyvering some colouring from beetroots, infamous for it's ability to stain everything it touches a nice shade of crimson red.
A day in the library is worth a week in the lab, so I took to searching the internet/this message board to see if this was a great idea or a fools errand. I came across someone using beetroot to make a LC, which seems to imply that it could work very well. On the other hand there's a lot of information about the anti-fungal compounds present in beets. I doubt these compounds are in high enough quantities to effect the growth on the plate, given that the juice is diluted.
Has anyone had any success using beetroot juice to colour agar?
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scarabaeus
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Registered: 06/13/18
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Re: Has anyone tried using beetroot to colour agar? [Re: Jus]
#26762123 - 06/21/20 02:39 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Have never done it myself -BUT! Sounds like a great opportunity for a very cool experiment. 1- will the beet color retain it's color upon high temps and pressures? 2- are any anti-fungal properties present in beet juice present in any quantities to ruin results of our petri dishes (agar plates)?
If you got the time, go for it.
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Jus
Stranger


Registered: 09/27/19
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Re: Has anyone tried using beetroot to colour agar? [Re: scarabaeus]
#26762150 - 06/21/20 03:02 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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I'd not really considered the stability of the colourful compounds in the beets, so I did some research and found this study which seems to indicate a reduction redness during pressure cooking.
My pressure cooker only hits 12 psi, so I need to cook for a long time. With that in mind, I think it's a safe to form a hypothesis that this won't work.
Still, worth a shot, what's there to loose other than time?
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scarabaeus
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Registered: 06/13/18
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Re: Has anyone tried using beetroot to colour agar? [Re: Jus]
#26762157 - 06/21/20 03:07 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Meh, who knows? It's just sumpin' to have fun with ya know? Still interesting though.
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ManifoldPrime
Per Ardua Ad Astra



Registered: 03/16/17
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Loc: South Africa
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Re: Has anyone tried using beetroot to colour agar? [Re: scarabaeus]
#26762165 - 06/21/20 03:27 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Please do test this, as I too like using red colouring so my colour coding for different recipes is easily determined.
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LadysKnight
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Registered: 10/09/15
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Re: Has anyone tried using beetroot to colour agar? [Re: ManifoldPrime]
#26762403 - 06/21/20 07:26 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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bodhisatta 
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Registered: 04/30/13
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Re: Has anyone tried using beetroot to colour agar? [Re: LadysKnight]
#26762444 - 06/21/20 08:11 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Just get better food coloring. Also colors only help hide contamination imo.
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Pastywhyte
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Registered: 09/15/12
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Re: Has anyone tried using beetroot to colour agar? [Re: bodhisatta]
#26762446 - 06/21/20 08:16 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Saratonin used beet agar once, it went from violet to golden in the PC. The pigment didn’t withstand the sterilization cycle.
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