| CULTUREMEDIA | Substances such as agar gel, as used in Petri dishes |
| AGAR | Malay word for a seaweed-derived jelly-like substance used in petri dishes or as a food thickener (4) |
| SLICKS | Styles back with gel, as hair |
| CLOTS | Gels, as blood |
| CULTURES | Customs found in Petri dishes (8) |
| PESTLE | Club-shaped implement used to grind substances such as garlic in a mortar. (6) |
| SPIRITS | Alcohol denatured by the addition of poisonous substances such as methanol, used as a fuel, solvent etc. (10,7) |
| METHYLATED | Alcohol denatured by the addition of poisonous substances such as methanol, used as a fuel, solvent etc. (10,7) |
| ACIDITY | Level of acid in substances such as water, soil or wine (7) |
| ABRASIVES | Substances such as emery, sand or corundum used for smoothing or roughening surfaces |
| CONDIMENTS | Substances such as salt and mustard that are used to flavour food (10) |
| CRYSTALLOGRAPHY | Science concerned with the structure of solid substances such as quartz, whose atoms are arranged in a definite pattern (5) |
| SPICES | Substances such as cumin, cloves, paprika, cinnamon, cardamom etc (6) |
| PRECIOUSMETALS | What are substances such as gold, silver and platinum? (8,6) |
| UMAMI | The taste of substances such as monosodium glutamate (5) |
| INERTGAS | Group of non-reactive substances such as neon and argon (5,3) |
| SNIFFERDOG | Canine trained to detect substances such as explosives or drugs (7,3) |
| ENZYMES | Substances such as amylase and pepsin |
| RESIN | Substances, such as myrrh, obtained from sap (5) |
| ASSAYERS | People who analyse substances such as metal (8) |
