The Rapid and Precise Detection of Candida albicans in Cosmetic Products Using Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP)

Abstract

The loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method can be expected to shorten the time required to detect specific micro-organisms in cosmetic products by the microbial limit test. However, the LAMP reaction failed to detect Candida albicans when test samples were contaminated with this species and other bacteria. This was because the concentration of C. albicans (a kind of yeast) did not exceed the detection limit due to inhibition by the growth of other bacteria in pre-culture medium. To solve this problem, we improved the pre-culture conditions to promote the growth of C. albicans. We also found that the dilution step in the LAMP protocol could be omitted and the precise detection of C. albicans be achieved by the LAMP method for almost all cosmetic products.