A simple method for the detection of protease activity on agar plates using Bromocresolgreen Dye

Investigations were conducted to determine the proteolytic activity using bromocresol green dye on substrate agar plates. Two methods were highlighted in this article. The first method was adopted to determine the proteolytic activity by flooding bromocresol green reagent on casein/skimmed milk agar plates. Later, a minimum of 0.0015% of bromocresol green was incorporated with the substrate agar plates before autoclaving to detect the proteolytic activity of bacteria. The proteolytic activity appeared as a colourless zone, while the rest of the plates were greenish-blue in colour which was pH dependent. This method was easy to perform and cheap.