Conservación de microorganismos desecados en el vacío por el método de Sordelli

The method was developed by professor A. Sordelli of Buenos Aires, almost 20 years ago, but has never been published by his author. In its most simplified form it consists of the following operations: A small quantity of the microbic culture to be preserved is introduced into a very small cotton plugged sterilized tube, adecuatety labelled and putted into a rather heavy walled Kahn tube in which bottom has been deposited a dehidratant substance (such as: 2 lentils of K(0H) or, if prefered, Ph anhidrid) and 2 or 3 glass beads for preventing the bottom of the small tube to come in touch with the dehidratant. The outside tube is closed by means of a perforated rubber plug through which a piece of capillar glass tube has been inserted. The capillar is then connected to an oil vacuum pump which is allowed to perform the necessary air evacuation for few minuts. After the vacuum has been well established, the capillar is sealed in a gas fíame, and, as an additional precaution the top portion of the sealed tube carriyng the rubber plug may be inmersed into melted parafíin. Using this simple method it has been possible to preserve, in a desiccated condition, a great number of cultures of bacteria, yeasts and fungy, for long periods of time, reaching, at present, to more than 10 years.