Question

discuss acidic and basic stains

Answer 1

Acidic stains: acidic stains are the ones that have a negative charge such that these could bind to the cell structures that are positively charged examples: some proteins. These are not commonly used in microbiology, except in procedures like capsule staining. Example of an acidic stain is acid fuschin stain or the India ink.

Basic stains: basic stains are more commonly used in microbiological procedures where they could bind to the negatively charged molecules. This is more useful since the surface of the bacterial cells are negatively charged. Some examples of basic stains are basic fuschin stain or methylene blue or safranin.