In studies on the leishmaniases, the identification
of the parasites to species level, by
iso-enzyme characterization or by most
molecular biological techniques, requires
the isolation of the parasites in culture.
Novy, McNeal and Nicolle (NNN) and Evan’s
modified Tobie’s (EMTb) are two conventional
media commonly used for the isolation
of Leishmania parasites from blood or tissue
samples of patients. Both are biphasic, with a
solid agar layer that has to be enriched with
blood, and EMTb medium is based on
relatively expensive reagents. The preparation
of both of these media is laborious and
time-consuming, and neither supports the
multiplication of all Leishmania parasites
from humans (Allahverdiyev et al., 2004;
Ihalamulla et al., 2005). A monophasicmicroculture
(MCC) method that only uses
very small volumes of RPMI 1640 supplemented
with 20%foetal calf serum (FCS) has
recently been described by Ihalamulla et al.
(2005). In the detection of human cutaneous
leishmaniasis in Sri Lanka, this method,....