mannitol

(noun)

A polyhydroxy alcohol, an isomer of sorbitol, used as an artificial sweetener.

Related Terms

Examples of mannitol in the following topics:

  • Selective and Differential Media

    • Mannitol salt agar (MSA) which is selective for Gram-positive bacteria and differential for mannitol.
    • MacConkey (MCK), which is differential for lactose fermentationmannitol salt agar (MSA), which is differential for mannitol fermentation.

  • Cultivation of Specimen

    • In most cases, specimens are also inoculated into differential media that define such characteristics as fermentation patters (mannitol salt and MacConkey agar) and as reactions in blood (blood agar).

  • The Structure and Configuration of Glucose

    • D-Fructose, the sweetest of the common natural sugars, is for example reduced to a mixture of D-glucitol (sorbitol) and D-mannitol, named after the aldohexoses from which they may also be obtained by analogous reduction.
    • Mannitol is itself a common natural carbohydrate.