It shows similar staining patterns as wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), which bind N-acetylglucosamine and sialic acid on polysaccharides.

Fungi tend to display a bright green color under UV/violet/violet-blue light due to the barrier filters used in microscopy for fluorescence.

Calcofluor white has to careful interpretation of staining as some non-specific reactions can make the background look a fluorescent yellow-green color.

[citation needed] In a study of methods to diagnose mycoses, a fungal infection in humans, CFW was compared with KOH and Chicago Sky Blue 6B.

CFW showed positive testing in 53.4% of cases that had suspected mycoses infections while Chicago Sky Blue 6B had 55% accuracy.

[5] A study that investigated the detection of Candida in cancerous or precancerous lesions using CFW with fluorescent microscopy.

The study wanted to see the effectiveness of Calcofluor-White against a species of mycotic infections that can cause death or serious injury against patients who are immunocompromised.

[9] Overall, the stain has key advantages to research and diagnostic purposes, but it has an issue of being slightly expensive and can not be as accurate for certain species.

CFW shows poor staining and fluorescence of several fungal organisms including Coccidioides immitis, Histoplasma capsulatum, and Cryptococcus neoformans.