An optical micromethod for the determination of relative crystallisation rates of calcium oxalate in gels: Method and preliminary results

This paper describes a new, highly efficient micromethod for the determination of relative crystallisation rates of calcium oxalate (CaOx). Crystallisation is performed in the upper layer of a gel (bactoagar, agarose) which contains one component (oxalate) of the sparingly soluble salt. Precipitation is started by pipetting Ca++ containing solutions (in the presence and absence of crystallisation inhibitors) onto the gel. The process is followed quantitatively as a function of time by means of vertical light path photometry carrying out quasi-simultaneous multideterminations within a 50-fold multicuvette. The test volume is 0.1 ml. The method is suitable for large scale determinations. About 50 single crystallisation kinetics can be measured within 5–15 min. Testing three known inhibitors of CaOx crystal formation, relative inhibitory activities were obtained with standard errors of 1%–4%.