Effect of adding a papain digest of ox liver to brain heart infusion cysteine broth on the recovery of non-sporing anaerobes from simulated blood cultures.

Panmede, a papain digest of ox liver, added to brain heart infusion cysteine broth improved the recovery of non-sporing anaerobes from simulated blood cultures where human blood was added to each broth. The brain heart infusion broth containing both cysteine and Panmede supported the best isolation of non-sporing anaerobes during the first 48 h incubation compared with the four commercial media tested in parallel. Good recovery of anaerobes during the first 24 h was obtained with the brain heart infusion broth supplemented with cysteine and Panmede, fastidious anaerobe broth and Brewer's thioglycollate from Southern Group Laboratories but not from Thiol medium and the other type of Brewer's thioglycollate medium tested.