Eagle's minimal essential medium

Minimal essential medium is a synthetic cell culture medium developed by Harry Eagle first published in 1959 in Science that can be used to maintain cells in tissue culture. It is based on six salts and glucose described in Earle's salts in 1943: calcium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium sulfate, sodium chloride, sodium phosphate and sodium bicarbonate. The medium is further supplemented with thirteen essential amino acids, and eight vitamins: thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinamide, pantothenic acid, pyrodoxine, folic acid, choline, and myo-inositol. Many variations of this medium have been developed, mostly adding additional vitamins, amino acids, and/or other nutrients.
Eagle developed his earlier "Basal Medium Eagle" in 1955–1957 on mouse L cells and human HeLa cells, with 13 essential amino acids and 9 vitamins added. BME contains biotin, which Eagle later found to be superfluous. His 1959 "minimal essential medium" doubles the amount of many amino acids to "conform more closely to the protein composition of cultured human cells. This permits the cultures to be kept for somewhat longer periods without refeeding".
DMEM was originally suggested as Eagle's medium with a 'fourfold concentration of amino acids and vitamins' by Renato Dulbecco and G. Freeman published in 1959. The commercial versions of this medium have additional modifications, see an example in the table below.
α-MEM is a medium based on MEM published in 1971 by Clifford P. Stanners and colleagues. It contains more non-essential amino acids, sodium pyruvate, and vitamins compared with MEM. It can also come with lipoic acid and nucleosides.
Glasgow's MEM is yet another modification, prepared by Ian MacPherson and Michael Stoker.

Composition

One liter of each medium contains :

Medium	BME	MEM	α-MEMa	DMEM
Glycine			50	30
L-alanine			25
L-arginine hydrochloride	21	126	126	84
L-asparagine-H₂O			50
L-aspartic acid			30
L-cysteine hydrochloride-H₂O			100
L-cystine 2HCl	16	31	31	63
L-glutamic acid			75
L-glutamine	292	292	292	584
L-histidine	8		31	42
L-histidine hydrochloride-H₂O		42	42
L-isoleucine	26	52	52	105
L-leucine	26	52	52	105
L-lysine hydrochloride	36.47	73	73	146
L-methionine	7.5	15	15	30
L-phenylalanine	16.5	32	32	66
L-proline			40
L-serine			25	42
L-threonine	24	48	48	95
L-tryptophan	4	10	10	16
L-tyrosine disodium salt dihydrate	26	52	52	104
L-valine	23.5	46	46	94
Ascorbic acid			50
Biotin	1		0.1
Choline chloride	1	1	1	4
D-calcium pantothenate	1	1	1	4
Folic acid	1	1	1	4
Niacinamide	1	1	1	4
Pyridoxal hydrochloride	1	1	1	4
Riboflavin	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.4
Thiamine hydrochloride	1	1	1	4
Vitamin B12			1.36
i-Inositol	2	2	2	7.2
Calcium chloride	200	200	200	200
Ferric nitrate				0.1
Magnesium sulfate	97.67	97.67	97.67	97.67
Potassium chloride	400	400	400	400
Sodium bicarbonate	2200	2200	2200	3700
Sodium chloride	6800	6800	6800	6400
Sodium phosphate monobasic	140	140	140	125
D-Glucose	1000	1000	1000	1000
Lipoic acid			0.2
Phenol red	10	10	10	15
Sodium pyruvate			110	110