Normal flora

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As the normal flora ( resident flora , colonization Flora , resident bacteria , or commensal ) refers to the entirety of the microorganisms , which on the inner and outer body surface of living organisms , living normally without entering into the body ( infection ) and a disease causing.

The term “flora” actually refers to a collective of plants ( flora , the Roman goddess of flowers). Nevertheless, this expression was also used for a community of microorganisms, i.e. a microorganism biocenosis , and has retained this meaning to this day.

The skin flora (of the different body regions) is composed differently than the mucous membrane flora in the mouth , nose and throat , in the various sections of the digestive tract, esophagus / stomach and large intestine (" intestinal flora ") and in the respiratory tract . The small intestine is largely free of microorganisms.

• On the skin come Streptococcus , Staphylococcus , Micrococcus , Corynebacterium and fusobacteria ago.

• In the intestine there are mainly bacteria , but also the yeast Candida albicans . The intestinal flora is made up of around 99% anaerobes and around 1% of the medically more important facultative anaerobic bacteria that live directly on the mucous membrane .

• The vagina is colonized by the so-called Döderlein flora ( Lactobacillus species).

• The vulva and penis , along with other microorganisms, are colonized by the bacterium Mycobacterium smegmatis .