Refrigerated B.O.D.

Incubators

Refrigerated Incubators, often called B.O.D Incubators or Low Temperature

Incubators, are commonly used for applications such as B.O.D. Determinations, Plant and
Insect Studies, Fermentation Studies, and Bacterial Culturing among many others. The
Low Temperature Incubators have a temperature range of 20C below ambient to 45C. If
your application requires light exposure you should consider the SL_LI15 Diurnal Growth
Chamber. This unit comes equipped with four bulbs vertically mounted to the door of the
incubator. Two independent timers simulate day and night cycles by controlling the
interior lighting. This chamber is ideal for plant growth studies. Refrigerated B.O.D.
(Biochemical Oxygen Demand) Applications Incubators enable end users to determine
levels of organic matter and nitrogen in wastewater samples. This wastewater must be
effectively measured for contaminates, treated and then released back into the environment
without posing a threat to the water supply system. Recently, stricter enforcement by
government regulatory agencies charged with monitoring air and water quality has forced a
greater number of organizations to actively test and treat their wastewater. B.O.D
incubators facilitate the storage of wastewater samples, and the SHEL LAB Low
Temperature Incubators accommodate from 62 to 565 B.O.D bottles. Low Temperature
Incubator Applications - B.O.D Determinations of Wastewater and Sewage APHA Method
at 20C Plant Cell Growth Fermentation Studies Bacterial Culturing Mycology Studies.

Near-infrared spectroscopy for the detection and quantification of

bacterial contaminations in pharmaceutical products.

Accurate detection and quantification of microbiological contaminations remains an issue

mainly due the lack of rapid and precise analytical techniques. Standard methods are
expensive and time-consuming being associated to high economic losses and public health
threats. In the context of pharmaceutical industry, the development of fast analytical
techniques able to overcome these limitations is crucial and spectroscopic techniques might
constitute a reliable alternative. In this work we proved the ability of Fourier transform near
infrared spectroscopy (FT-NIRS) to detect and quantify bacteria (Bacillus subtilis,
Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Salmonella enterica, Staphylococcus
epidermidis) from 10 to 10(8) CFUs/mL in sterile saline solutions (NaCl 0.9%). Partial
least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) models showed that FT-NIRS was able to
discriminate between sterile and contaminated solutions for all bacteria as well as to
identify the contaminant bacteria. Partial least squares (PLS) models allowed bacterial
quantification with limits of detection ranging from 5.1 to 9 CFU/mL for E. coli and B.
subtilis, respectively. This methodology was successfully validated in three pharmaceutical
preparations (contact lens solution, cough syrup and topic anti-inflammatory solution)
proving that this technique possess a high potential to be routinely used for the detection
and quantification of bacterial contaminations.