Crystal Violet is a dye that is a mixture of violet rosanilinis with antibacterial, antifungal, and anthelmintic properties. Crystal Violet is a component of Gram staining that allows one to recognize the difference between gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria with differential staining. The compound helps to assess bacterial contamination of tissue culture samples. The staining response is due to the difference in the chemical and structural composition of the cell walls in different bacteria. Crystal Violet can also be used to test the different species of archaea and the cytostatic/cytotoxic effects on tumor cell lines.
Crystal Violet is the primary stain used in the Gram stain technique for differentiation of Gram-negative versus Gram-postive bacteria. Used as a component of CV cytotoxicity assays.
Crystal violet is an organic chloride salt that is the monochloride salt of crystal violet cation. It has been used in creams for the topical treatment of bacterial and fungal infections, being effective against some Gram-positive bacteria (notably Staphylococcus species) and some pathogenic fungi (including Candida species) but use declined following reports of animal carcinogenicity. It has also been used for dying wood, silk, and paper, as well as a histological stain. It has a role as a histological dye, an antiseptic drug, an antibacterial agent, an antifungal agent and an anthelminthic drug. It contains a crystal violet cation.