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Glite Dictionary
🩸 Blood detector 🦠 Bacteria nutrient
hemin

hemin

9.9
An iron-containing compound added to culture dishes to help grow certain bacteria
  • noun
  • /ˈhiːmɪn/
  • Specialized
: hemina
  • The microbiology lab uses chocolate agar enriched with hemin when isolating Haemophilus from throat swabs.

Examples

  • Laboratory technicians add hemin to agar plates to support growth of fastidious bacteria.

  • Can you provide the hemin for the experiment?

  • The Haemophilus influenzae strain requires hemin to grow in culture.

  • The laboratory used hemin to culture the bacteria.

  • To grow Haemophilus influenzae in the lab, scientists often supplement the medium with hemin as a crucial growth factor.

  • Certain bacteria require hemin to thrive, making it an essential component in specialized culture media.

  • Researchers added hemin to the agar plates to successfully culture the fastidious Haemophilus species.

Synonyms

heme
vshemin
  • Specialized
2 8.2

Small red part of blood that contains iron and carries oxygen

is used as a bacterial growth factor rather than an oxygen carrier
hematin
vshemin
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A red substance containing iron made from a blood protein that helps carry oxygen in blood

is instead used in labs to culture certain bacteria rather than for oxygen transport
haemitin
vshemin
  • UK
1 9.9

A red substance in blood with iron that helps carry oxygen

is applied as a microbiology growth factor rather than for oxygen transport
haem
vshemin
  • UK
1 9.8

A red part of a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen

is used instead to help grow certain bacteria rather than to carry oxygen

Surface Forms

hemin singular
hemins plural

Morphology

hemin = heme (semi-transparent) = heme + in

Derived from 'heme' with the chemical suffix '-in'; the morphological relation is straightforward but denotes a technical growth-factor substance.

Etymology

Hemin comes from heme, from Greek haima, meaning 'blood'. So labs add hemin to lab dishes because it is a blood-derived substance that helps certain bacteria, like Haemophilus, to grow.