Comparison of Chromogenic Media with the Corn Meal Agar for Speciation of Candida

In recent days, non albicans candida species are emerging, many of these species are inherently resistant to routinely used antifungals. Hence, the need for speciation of candida is important in the treatment point of view. Speciation of candida can be done by conventional methods, using chromogenic media, serological, molecular methods. Most of the laboratories use Hicrome for identification of yeast species considering its ease, rapidity . To determine the usefulness of Hicrome agar in the identification of different species of candida in comparison with corn meal agar. The candida isolated from cutaneous candidiasis were included. Species identification was done by colony color on Hicrome, and confirmed by morphology on corn meal agar for 80 candida isolates. The 10 different species of candida were identified. Emerging species of candida Candida kefyr, C.zeylanoides, C.lusitaniae C.lipolytica were identified by morphology on corn meal agar which were misidentified as C.glabrata by Hicrome. Identification of C.albicans, C.tropicalis, C.krusei by colony colour on Hicrome correlated with the morphology on corn meal agar. So, the incorporation of corn meal agar in the routine yeast identification is more judicious than Hicrome as it increase the accuracy in the identification of candida species within in the same time span as that of Hicrome.