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).