CHARACTERIZATION ON HEAT STERILIZATION OF A NOVEL AUTOCLAVE WITH A TURNTABLE FOR ROTATION

Heat sterilization using a novel autoclave, Stirclave(R), was studied as compared with that of a conventional autoclave. The outline of the apparatus is the same as a conventional autoclave except for a turntab le used in rotation, which is activated by a roller connected to a mot or. From temperature measurements, it was found that temperature at th e bottom of the vessel was significantly lower compared with that at t he top of the vessel in the non-rotational mode, while both temperatur e profiles were nearly the same in the rotational mode. When ii of a m edium used in antibiotics production, which also contained 10(5)/ml of spores of Bacillus subtilis as a contaminant, was sterilized for 20 m in in both modes and the medium was used for cultivation of Streptomyc es fradiae, the complete sterilization and antibiotic production were observed in the medium sterilized by the rotational mode, while the gr owth of B. subtilis and no production of antibiotics were observed in non-rotational mode.