Answer: yes. In his article "The End of Antibiotics and the Rise of Iodine as an Effective Alternative" Mark Sircus, OMD, says "Though it kills 90 percent of bacteria on the skin within 90 seconds, its use as an antibiotic has been ignored. Iodine exhibits activity against bacteria, molds, yeasts, protozoa, and many viruses; indeed, of all antiseptic preparations suitable for direct use on humans and animals and upon tissues, only iodine is capable of killing all classes of pathogens: gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, mycobacteria, fungi, yeasts, viruses and protozoa. Most bacteria are killed within 15 to 30 seconds of contact." See the full article at
If iodine is not applied, both the gram-positive and gram-negative stains will appear to be gram-negative. The iodine acts as a mordant that helps to fix the crystal violet stain in the gram-positive bacteria, making them appear purple. Without iodine, the crystal violet stain can be easily washed out of both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, resulting in a pink or red color.
Iodine stains starch contained in cells. Iodine is also used to distinguish between Gram negative and Gram positive bacteria. The Gram stain contains iodine.
Gram positive cells take up the crystal violet, which is then fixed in the cell with the iodine mordant. This forms a crystal-violet iodine complex which remains in the cell even after decolorizing. It is thought that this happens because the cell walls of gram positive organisms include a thick layer of protein-sugar complexes called peptidoglycans. This layer makes up 60-90% of the gram positive cell wall. Decolorizing the cell causes this thick cell wall to dehydrate and shrink, which closes the pores in the cell wall and prevents the stain from exiting the cell. At the end of the gram staining procedure, gram positive cells will be stained a purplish-blue color. Gram negative cells also take up crystal violet, and the iodine forms a crystal violet-iodine complex in the cells as it did in the gram positive cells. However, the cell walls of gram negative organisms do not retain this complex when decolorized. Peptidoglycans are present in the cell walls of gram negative organisms, but they only comprise 10-20% of the cell wall. Gram negative cells also have an outer layer which gram positive organisms do not have; this layer is made up of lipids, polysaccharides, and proteins. Exposing gram negative cells to the decolorizer dissolves the lipids in the cell walls, which allows the crystal violet-iodine complex to leach out of the cells. This allows the cells to subsequently be stained with safranin. At the end of the gram staining procedure, gram negative cells will be stained a reddish-pink color. Remember:
Plasmodium is not a bacteria to be classified whether gram negative or gram positive. It is a genus of parasitic protists. Infection by these organisms is known as malaria.
Over destaining can cause the purple color from the gram positive bacteria to be washed away, so when you apply the safrinin the gram positive bacteria will take up a pink color causing gram positive bacteria to appear gram negative.
gram positive..
Gram positive are purple. Just remember Positive+Purple. Gram negative are a reddish color from the safranin. After using the crystal violet, the grams iodine acts as a mordant to hold color on cell wall. When using the alcohol, the gram positive will stay purple while the gram negative will become clear. This is due to the outer cell wall of the gram negative specimen (lipopolysaccharide) basically being stripped by the alcohol, so now you have a clear specimen again. When you add the safranin it sticks to the gram negative cell wall, hince the red/pink color.
Gram positive !!
Gram negative
gram negative
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