The Wayson stain is a basic fuchsin-methylene blue

Methylene blue

Methylene blue is a heterocyclic aromatic chemical compound with the molecular formula C16H18N3SCl. It has many uses in a range of different fields, such as biology and chemistry. At room temperature it appears as a solid, odorless, dark green powder, that yields a blue solution when dissolved in...

, ethyl alcohol-phenol

Phenol

Phenol, also known as carbolic acid, phenic acid, is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5OH. It is a white crystalline solid. The molecule consists of a phenyl , bonded to a hydroxyl group. It is produced on a large scale as a precursor to many materials and useful compounds...

 microscopic

Microscopic

The microscopic scale is the scale of size or length used to describe objects smaller than those that can easily be seen by the naked eye and which require a lens or microscope to see them clearly.-History:...

 staining procedure. It was originally a modified methylene blue stain used for diagnosing bubonic plague

Bubonic plague

Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...

. With this stain, Yersinia pestis

Yersinia pestis

Yersinia pestis is a Gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium. It is a facultative anaerobe that can infect humans and other animals....

appears purple with a characteristic safety-pin appearance, which is due to the presence of a central vacuole.

Wayson stain is used along with the Giemsa

Giemsa stain

Giemsa stain, named after Gustav Giemsa, an early German microbiologist, is used in cytogenetics and for the histopathological diagnosis of malaria and other parasites.-Uses:...

 and Wright's

Wright's stain

Wright's stain is a histologic stain that facilitates the differentiation of blood cell types. It is used primarily to stain peripheral blood smears and bone marrow aspirates which are examined under a light microscope...

 stains to rapidly detect potential biowarfare attacks It has also been investigated as a possible cheaper and faster way to detect melioidosis

Melioidosis

Melioidosis is an infectious disease caused by a Gram-negative bacterium, Burkholderia pseudomallei, found in soil and water. It is of public health importance in endemic areas, particularly in Thailand and northern Australia. It exists in acute and chronic forms. Symptoms may include pain in...

. It is a useful alternative to the Gram

Gram staining

Gram staining is a method of differentiating bacterial species into two large groups ....

 or Loeffler’s Methylene Blue stains, especially for detecting Yersinia enterocolitica

Yersinia enterocolitica

Yersinia enterocolitica is a species of gram-negative coccobacillus-shaped bacterium, belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae. Yersinia enterocolitica infection causes the disease yersiniosis, which is a zoonotic disease occurring in humans as well as a wide array of animals such as cattle,...

which is often found in contaminated food

External links

• Lab Safety sheet for Wayson Stain