Description
Kovac's Reagent is a rapid biochemical reagent for detecting indole production by cultured microorganisms.
Organisms possessing tryptophanase convert tryptophan to indole. In the acidic reagent, indole reacts with p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde to produce a red-to-violet layer, while a negative test remains yellow or unchanged.
The reagent is added to a suitably incubated tryptophan-containing culture. The colour reaction is read promptly and used with other biochemical tests for organism identification.
