petriplaten

Petriplaten are the Dutch term for Petri dishes, which are shallow, cylindrical containers with a loose-fitting lid used to culture microorganisms. In English-language texts, the term Petri dish is standard. The device is named after Julius Richard Petri, a German bacteriologist who introduced the design in the 1880s while working in Köch’s laboratory, and it became widely adopted for microbial culture.

Petri dishes are typically made of glass or clear plastic. They come in diameters of roughly 60 mm or 90 mm and stand about 10–20 mm tall. The lid protects the medium from airborne contamination and reduces evaporation while allowing some gas exchange. The interior is filled with a solid or semi-solid growth medium, most commonly agar-based nutrients such as nutrient agar or specialized media tailored to specific organisms.

Samples are inoculated onto the medium under aseptic conditions. The dish is then incubated to allow colonies of microorganisms to grow. Petri dishes are used for bacterial and fungal culture, environmental sampling, and teaching purposes. For safety and accuracy, used dishes are sterilized before disposal, typically by autoclaving, and laboratory waste is handled according to biosafety regulations.

Modern laboratories often use disposable polystyrene Petri dishes with vented or semi-vented lids to reduce contamination and improve gas exchange. Variants exist for particular applications, including cell culture and portable field testing. The term petriplaten remains common in Dutch-language contexts and in historical or microbiology literature.