Huge list of stains available to me, any suggestions?

[notthatkindofDr]

Hi Everyone
I am finishing up at the lab I did my graduate training in, my supervisor is aware that I am slowly getting into microscopy, and she has given me a list of her stain inventory and said I can take a small amount of whatever I want, to use at home. I am listing them below (the pdf file is too large to attach here).
I was hoping some of you can spend a few minutes browsing this list, and recommend any stains that I should take a small amount of, and make some stains for future use keeping the following criteria in mind:

I would like to use stains that are stable at room temperature for long periods of time
When I want to fix specimens, I will likely use heat, ethanol, isopropanol, and I may embedd tissues in wax (ie paraplast plus).
I will primarily be looking at fungi, bacteria and plant materials, with the occasional cheek swab
I do not want anything overly toxic/harmful as I have a toddler, these stains will be kept out of reach, but you can never be too careful.
I am OK with using water soluble or spirit soluble stains, low concentrations of acids are OK too.

anyways, if you can look at the list, and if you spot any "MUST HAVE stains" please let me know, I appreciate taking advantage of those with more experience than myself

Here is the list:



acid fucshin
acridine orange
acriflavine (neutral) acriflavine (trypaflavin)
acridingelb extra alcian Blue 8GS
alcian Blue 8GN (ingrain blue 1)
allizarin yellow GG amaranth red, USP (aniline red)
ammonium molybdate
aniline yellow (fast yellow S)
aniline blue BB
aniline blue
aniline blue aniline blue
aniline blue anthacene (blue violet fluorescence)
auramin O
auramin O
aurin
aurophosphin
azocarmine B
azocarmine G
azocoll substrate <50 mesh
azur A
azur A
azur I
azur II
basic fuchsin
blue dextran
brilliant dianilgrun
brilliant sulfaflavine
brom cresol green
brom phenol blue
benzopurpurin 48
blue tetrazolium
brazilin
brilliant cresyl blue
brilliant phosphin
brilliant sulfolfavin
brom cresol green
brom phenol blue
brom thymol blue
cacodylic acid (sodium salt)
calcofluor M2R enhancer
chelidonium extract
chlorophyll extract chrome azurol S
chromotrope 2R(fast fuchsin G) chrysarobin
Clayton yellow
congo red (direct red #28)
congo red congo red

congorot (congo red) coomassie brilliant blue G250
copper stain for electrophoresis
copper destain
coriphosphin O cresol red
cracein scarlet (acid red 71) crystal viclet
crystal violet
crystal violet (gentian violet, methyl violet)
Dahlia (Hoffman's violet)
DOD (2-2 dihydroxy-6-6'dinaphthyl disulfide) DDD (2-2'dihydroxy-6-6'dinaphthyl disulfide)
botin B
eosin blue shade
eosin bluish
eosin red, yellowish
eosin yellow shade
eosin yellowish
eriochrome black T (Mordant black 11)
eriochrome black T
erythrosin A erythrosin B
erythrosin B
euchrysin 2 GNX
euparal
Evans Blue
Evans Blue Evans Blue
fast blue (azoene Fast Blue RR salt diazota) fast blue B salt (diazo Blue B,fast blue salt BN)
fast green
fast green FCF
fluorescein froe acid
fluorescein-5-thic-samicarbazide fluorescent brightener 28 (calcofluor white M2R)
Geneview
gentian violet
giemsa's stain
haematoxylin hematein
hide powder azure
indan threne olive TP extract conc. Powder
indenone (2,3-diphenyl-1-indenone)
indigo carmine
indulin
indulin bluish
Janus Green
lead citrate
light green
light green
light green SF yellowish
light green SF yellowish
litmus (granular)
magdalarot
malachite green malachite green
malachite green oxalate
martius yellow mercury orange
methyl green
methyl green
methyl green methyl red
methyl red
methyl red methyl red
methyl orange
methyl orange C.P.
methyl violet B (aniline violet, dahlia violet B) methyl violet 3B
methyl violet 6B methylene blue
methylene blue
methylene blue USP methylene blue chiaride
morin
naphthanil diazo Blue S
naphthol blue black (camido black 108)
naphthol yellow S
neo tetrazolium chloride neutral red chloride
neutral red iodide
noutral red pure
night blue
nigrosin
nigrosin
nigrosine
nile blue
nile blue A
nile blue A
ninhydrin
ninhydrin monohydrate nuclear fast red
orange G
orange G orange G
pararosaniline HCI
pararosaniline HCI
patent blue V phenol red
phloxine B
phosphine 3R
platinum thymine Blue potassium dichromate
potassium iodide
primulin O
procion yellow MARF pyronine G
quinaldine red
remazol brilliant Blue R (reactive blue 19)
remazol brilliant Blue R salt resorcin blue
resorcin fuchsin (Weigerts Elastic Tissue Stain)
resazurine rhodamin 6 GD extra
thodamine B base (solvent red 49)
rhodamine B special
rhodamine 6G (basic red 1)

rose bengal
rubidium sulfate
ruthenium oxychloride,
safraning
safranin O (basic red 2)
sarva blue
silver nitrate stains-all
sudan black B (acotylated)
sudan black B sudan black B
sudan III sudan IV
sudan IV (biebrich scarlet R)
tetrazolium blue
thiazolgelb G
thiazinrot R (thiazin rod R)
thiszin red R
thionine blue
thionine
thionine
thymol blue
titan yellow toluidine Blue O
toluidine Blue toluenesulfonic acid
uranyl acetate
Victoria Blue
xylidine ponceau

[tgss]

Well, others will almost certainly expand greatly on this list, but Toluidine blue O, for many uses; Safranin O and fast green FCF for plant sections; Alcian blue likewise; haematoxylin and eosin (I assume bluish?) for animal tissue.

What a treasure trove that list is!
Tom W.

[BramHuntingNematodes]

Be careful with that fast green fcf powder it's food safe but it gets everywhere it's rust red and hard to see until it gets wet. Still finding it in weird places.

[MicroBob]

Hi, that is an extensive selection you have access to!
I would suggest to have a look at Armin Eisners stain database:www.aeisner.de
Many water soluble stains tend to develop fungus, adding a few grains of thymol helps a lot.
For botanic sections Etzold FCA and Wacker W3A are very nice and simple to use. You can find a lot on these stains on the website of the mkb bonn: http://www.mikroskopie-bonn.de/themense ... /index.php

Since stains are best when they attatch to certain structures I would recommend to see them generally as critical. How critical shows the SDS and preferable asking a chemist. There also is the question of disposal as many stains are harmful to water organisms. Can you collect these and bring them back to from where they came?

Bob

[notthatkindofDr]

Hi Everyone
Thanks for the responses!
I will start preparing a few stains, luckily thymol is available to me in large quantities, i will prepare a stock solution of this and add it to some of the water based stains

[Hobbyst46]

A tiny grain of stain, when dissolved, and if spilled, will create huge mess around.
Usually the concentration of stain in water, for efficient staining, is less than 0.1% (0.1g/100ml of water).

[notthatkindofDr]

A tiny grain of stain, when dissolved, and if spilled, will create huge mess around.
Usually the concentration of stain in water, for efficient staining, is less than 0.1% (0.1g/100ml of water).

Yes. I will likely prepare stains in the lab.

[Wes]

Acridine orange is wonderful if you have a fluorescence setup. I keep 10 mg/ml in DMSO in the fridge next to the eggs.

BTW what is your field of study?

[notthatkindofDr]

Acridine orange is wonderful if you have a fluorescence setup. I keep 10 mg/ml in DMSO in the fridge next to the eggs.

BTW what is your field of study?

Oh wow very nice, no fluorescence setup at home , but spent way too much time on an olympus confocal to look at fluorescent tagged proteins.

Primarily focused on molecular biology of plant pathogens, with a quick foray into protein biochemistry. But my undergrad was spent on visualizing oomycetes Phythopthora infestans

[Wes]

Nice, sometimes I bait oomycetes in the wild with boiled grains and dead insects, I find them very interesting to observe and propagate at home.

Some other stains these come to my mind as potentially useful: neutral red, toluidine blue, methyl green, crystal violet, Janus green, Congo red and Sudan III.

Eventually you end up with a collection like this:

[Peter]

Hi notthatkindofDr,
I would take samples of them all. You will almost certainly not regret any that you take however you may well regret some you miss.
Peter.