Urea Indole Medium is recommended for differentiation of micro-organisms especially Enterobacteriaceae on the basis of their ability to hydrolyze urea and indole production. This medium is very useful in the identification of Proteus species from Salmonella and Shigella species. L- Trypytophan is an essential amino acid and is converted to skatole and indole, which is detected by the addition of Kovacs Reagent (R008). Sodium chloride maintains the osmotic balance. The phosphates helps in the buffering of the medium. Microorganisms that possess the enzyme urease hydrolyse urea , releasing ammonia, which is detected by the pH indicator phenol red . The alkalinility so developed imparts pink colour to the medium. Proteus species show positive urease reaction.

For the cultural isolation of Neisseria and Haemophilus species from a variety of clinical specimens.

Reticulocytes are juvenile red cells, which contain remnants of basophilic ribonucleoproteins. This material reacts with brilliant cresyl blue to form a bluish black precipitate of granules or filaments.

Papanicolaou’s stain is a multichromatic (multicolored) cytological staining technique.The Papanicolaou stain is one of the most widely used stains in cytology, where it is used to aid pathologists in making a diagnosis.

HiMedia is delivering a range of chemicals and reagents for use in the development of diagnostic lateral flow immunoassays. These chemicals and reagents have been tested for their physical, chemical and functional characteristics to improve the reliability of results.

Haematoxylin (Harris) is used for general purpose nuclear stain and for histological studies. Haematoxylin and eosin are the principle stains used for the demonstration of nucleus and the cytoplasmic inclusions. Alum acts as a mordant and haematoxylin containing alum stains nucleus light blue which turns red in the presence of acid. The cell differentiation is achieved by treating the tissue with acid solution.

Eosin is tetra bromofluorescein (a substituted xanthene), a red acidic dye and fluorochrome. The dye is very soluble in ethyl alcohol. Eosin, 2% w/v is the most commonly used as counterstain for hematoxylin and it is also used for monochrome staining of bacteria.

May Grunwald's Blood Stains are basic and acidic dyes which induce multiple colours when applied to cells. The basic component of white cells (i.e cytoplasm) is stained by the acidic dye and they are described as eosinophilic or acidophilic. The acidic components (e.g. nucleus with nucleic acid) take blue to purple, shades of the basic dyes and they are called basophilic. The neutral components of the cell are stained by both the dyes.

Decolourizer is one reagent used in this process to provide the color differentiation. A decolourizing solution is used to remove the Primary Stain from cells which bind it weakly and then the counterstain (like safranin) is used to provide a colour contrast in those cells that are decolourized.

Lugol's iodine is used as staining solution to detect intestinal protozoa and helminth ova or larvae. It is rapid contrast dye that is added to direct wet mounts of fecal material to aid in differentiating parasitic cysts from host white blood cells. Lugol's iodine stain the protozoan nuclei and intracytoplasmic organelles brown making them easier to identify.