How can you remove crystal violet in a Gram Stain?

Answer 1

You won't be able to positively distinguish gram negative from gram positive organisms. Crystal violet is used first so that gram positive organisms will take up the dye and this color is not affected by safrinin later on. Gram negative organisms will lose the purple coloring during the decolorizer step, therefore need to be counterstained so that you can view the organisms.

Answer 2

Crystal violet can be removed from a Gram-stained bacterial sample by rinsing the slide with a decolorizing agent such as ethanol or acetone. The decolorizing agent helps to wash away the crystal violet dye from the cells that have not retained it in their cell walls, leaving only the Gram-positive cells stained purple.

Answer 3

You can use acetone or alcohol to remove crystal violet(decolorizer).

Answer 4

It's one of the differentiating dyes that shows a bacterium is gram positive by staying purple at the end of the staining process.