Pigmentación de cepas de Cryptococcus neoformans sobre agar semilla de girasol

the production of melanin on a medium of sunflower seeds extract agar from 86 strains of cryptococcus neoformans belonging to the mycology laboratory of "pedro kouri" institute of tropical medicine was determined. 54.7 % of them produced colonies with dark brown pigment, 5.8 % a light pigment and 37.2 % an intermediate tonality. a fourth group was created for those strains with a true pigment (2.3 %). this paper is an important contribution to attain a better characterization of the strains from the collection of the institution and serves as a basis to further studies of pathogenicity and susceptibility.