# nutrient agar

> Medium for growing microorganisms

**Wikidata**: [Q588839](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q588839)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutrient_agar)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/nutrient-agar

## Summary
Nutrient agar is a solid growth medium used for cultivating a wide variety of microorganisms in laboratory settings. It is a general-purpose agar-based medium that provides essential nutrients for microbial growth, typically used in Petri dishes for culture.

## Key Facts
- Nutrient agar is an instance of the "growth medium" class and a subclass of "agar plate".
- It has multiple aliases including nutrient agar medium, nutrient agar media, and French equivalents like Gélose ordinaire and Gélose nutritive ordinaire.
- The entity has a freebase ID of `/m/04ld4db` and a Google Knowledge Graph ID of `/g/11bwy_rv7q`.
- Nutrient agar is documented in 10 Wikipedia languages: Arabic, English, Spanish, Persian, French, Japanese, Malay, Dutch, Polish, and Thai.
- It has 12 sitelinks across Wikimedia projects, with its parent class "agar plate" having 18 sitelinks.

## FAQs
### Q: What is nutrient agar used for?
A: Nutrient agar is used as a general-purpose growth medium for cultivating diverse microorganisms in microbiology laboratories, typically in Petri dishes.

### Q: How does nutrient agar differ from other agar media?
A: Unlike specialized media, nutrient agar is a non-selective, general-purpose medium that supports the growth of a broad range of microorganisms without inhibiting specific types.

### Q: Is nutrient agar used in clinical diagnostics?
A: The source material does not specify clinical applications, but its role as a growth medium implies utility in microbiological testing contexts.

## Why It Matters
Nutrient agar serves as a foundational tool in microbiology and research by providing a standardized, reliable platform for microbial cultivation. Its simplicity and versatility enable the isolation, identification, and study of microorganisms across environmental, clinical, and industrial applications. As a subclass of agar plates, it embodies the critical intersection of solid culture techniques and nutrient provision, underpinning countless experiments in microbial ecology, pathogen detection, and biotechnology. Its widespread adoption across languages and knowledge platforms underscores its universal importance in laboratory workflows.

## Notable For
- Being a subclass of agar plate, directly linking it to the Petri dish-based culture methodology.
- Its extensive multilingual presence, with documentation in 10 Wikipedia languages including Arabic, Japanese, and Persian.
- Recognition as a non-selective, general-purpose medium, distinguishing it from specialized media designed for specific microbial groups.
- Its inclusion in the Google Knowledge Graph and Freebase knowledge bases, reflecting its established role in scientific taxonomy.

## Body
### Classification
- **Instance of**: Growth medium  
- **Subclass of**: Agar plate (Petri dish with agar used to culture microbes)  

### Identifiers
- **Freebase ID**: `/m/04ld4db`  
- **Google Knowledge Graph ID**: `/g/11bwy_rv7q`  
- **Microsoft Academic ID (discontinued)**: 2780166377  

### Aliases
- Nutrient agar medium  
- Nutrient agar media  
- Gélose ordinaire  
- Milieu ordinaire  
- Gélose nutritive ordinaire  
- Gélose Nutritive  
- Gelose nutritive  

### Wikimedia Presence
- **Wikipedia title**: Nutrient agar  
- **Languages**: Arabic, English, Spanish, Persian, French, Japanese, Malay, Dutch, Polish, Thai  
- **Sitelink count**: 12  

### Related Entities
- **Agar plate** (class): Petri dish with agar used to culture microbes (sitelink count: 18)  
- **Growth medium** (class): Liquid or gel used for the growth of microorganisms or cells (sitelink count: 34)

## References

1. Freebase Data Dumps. 2013
2. [OpenAlex](https://docs.openalex.org/download-snapshot/snapshot-data-format)