Human fecal flora: the normal flora of 20 Japanese-Hawaiians

Abstract

Quantitative and qualitative examination of the fecal flora of 20 clinically healthy Japanese-Hawaiian males was carried out by using anaerobic tube culture techniques. Cultural counts were 93% of the microscopic clump counts. Isolated colonies were selected in a randomized manner to give an unbiased sampling of the viable bacterial types. Each isolate was characterized for species identification. From a total of 1,147 isolates, 113 distinct types of organisms were observed. Statistical estimates indicate that these types account for 94% of the viable cells in the feces. The quantitative composition of the flora of this group of people, together with differential characteristics of previously unreported species, is presented for those kinds of bacteria which each represented at least 0.05% of the flora.