Function of Microbiology Incubators

Microbiology incubator is a tool that is usually used to incubate microorganisms, for example, such as fungi, microbes, to other types of microbial cells under certain conditions.

Types of Laboratory incubators

Some types of incubators that are very often used in laboratories include the following.

• -General Incubator
• Low temperature BOD incubator
• Incubator 2 chambers
• Multi-room incubator
• Shake Incubator (g Incubator)
• Peltier Cold Incubator
• Multi-shelf rocking incubator
• Incubator with CO2 jacket

In addition to laboratory incubators, apparently incubators are also used on farms such as ducks, chickens and other poultry. While in the hospital is a baby incubator needed to condition babies born prematurely.

Function and use of microbiological incubators

This laboratory tool is often found in microbiology laboratories rather than chemistry laboratories. Why is that? This is because the condition of the room in the laboratory as a whole will affect the growth of microorganism culture that is being cultivated. When chemicals are placed in chemical laboratories, they can of course evaporate, and can even cause cross contamination. Therefore, to minimize this occurrence, the incubator is placed in a microbiology or biology laboratory.

Do you know what is the most important function of an incubator? Yes, its main function is to maintain or control the environmental conditions that are in the incubator, from humidity to temperature. With the incubator, students, and lecturers will be helped when they want to do research related to the growth of microorganisms, both fungi, yeast, fungi, bacteria, and so on. Setting the existing conditions in the incubator will certainly provide information about the optimal conditions of microorganism growth that can be seen both in chemical reactions and biological factors. Thus, microbiological incubators are very helpful for researchers to find out the breeding of bacteria. Without this incubator, and only relying on the senses, it will really be difficult to do.

Know the laboratory incubator features

The incubator itself is designed to regulate the space in it according to humidity, optimal temperature, carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen ratio (O2). Incubator temperature adjustment ranges from ± 5 ° C – 70 ° C. You can adjust the temperature according to the needs in growing microorganisms. Most incubators are equipped with a timer.

Not only that, the capacity of the incubator also varies greatly. You can find incubators from small to large sizes. The size variations of the incubator are based on volume, ranging from 48 to 170L. Some incubators are also equipped with shakers.

The process of the incubator itself is called incubation. Incubation is a condition of the treatment of microorganisms that are inoculated against the growth media, using liquid or solid media. Media that is often used is made of peptone, beef extract, and agar. Each material must be carefully weighed first using analytical scales. Generally, the glassware used for inoculation is a test tube or petri dish. If it has been inoculated on the media, the next step is to store it in an incubator at certain conditions or temperatures.

Researchers can see the growth of microorganisms periodically. when the incubation temperature does not match the optimal conditions needed by microorganisms to grow, of course these microorganisms cannot grow properly.