General purpose media for growing fastidious pathogenic Gram negative (FGN) bacteria are
limited to non-selective blood and chocolate agar. These suffer from excessive contamination with
fungi, Gram positive, and Gram negative bacteria, especially Pseudomonas spp. MacConkey agar
can be modified to grow Haemophilus, Helicobacter, Campylobacter and other FGN without the
use of antibiotics. BNO100 and BNO70 media were based on MacConkey medium. BNO1-4 were
Blood Agar Base containing crystal violet and no bile salts. All media were made as chocolate agar
with 8% defibrinated sheep blood, yeast extract 0.5%, glycerol 0.5% (v/v), vitamins, and agar.