GranuCult® plus Bile Aesculin Azide Agar is suitable for the detection and enumeration of intestinal enterococci (fecal streptococci).

GranuCult® plus Bile Esculin Azide Agar is a selective medium used for isolation and presumptive identification of fecal Streptococci. The presence of intestinal enterococci serves as an indicator of fecal contamination. BEA agar is employed as a confirmation and enumeration of medium for typical isolation on the primary isolation Membrane Enterococcus Selective Agar (1.05262 and 1.05289). Enterococci and some species of the genus Streptococcus namely S. bovis and S. equines can reproduce normally in this medium. Esculin hydrolysis and bile tolerances are regarded as reliable characteristics of enterococci. Intestinal enterococci hydrolyze the glycoside esculin to give dextrose and esculetin, which forms an olive green to black complex with iron (III) ions.Enterococci are bile tolerant. Bile salts exhibit the growth of numerous accompanying bacteria. The concentration of sodium azide in the medium inhibits the growth of Gram-negative microbial flora while sparing the enterococci.