Describing bacteria - what does this mean?

I dont really understand what this sentence means :redface:

can anyone help me out? please
Its describing how a type of bacteria looks in a gelatin stab
'saccate liquefaction with white to yellowish pellicle and white or yellow to orange sediment'
its mainly the 'saccate liquefacion' and 'pellicle' that i dont know the meaning of
thanks in advance

Reply 1

Iscariot

I'm not even going to pretend like I knew what those words mean either, but I'm bored enough to look them up.

pellicle: a thin skin or membrane; film; scum
saccate: shaped like a sac or pouch
liquefacient: something that liquefies or promotes liquefaction.

Basically in a nutshell what I believe it's trying to say (from having done quite a few bacterial cell growths in biology) is that you can see where the bacteria is by whiteish-yellowish circular patterns within the growth medium, these are the bacterial colonies happily growing away in the gelatin.