In Vitro Effect of Lemon and Orange juice on Struvite Crystallization

Abstract

To investigate the inhibitory effect of lemon and orange juices on the growth of struvite crystals. Struvite crystals were grown by the single diffusion gel growth technique and the inhibitory effect of lemon and orange juices on the growth of struvitecrystals has been studied. With an increase in the concentration of lemon and orange juices, the weight of the formed crystals was gradually reduced from 2.49 g to 0.09 g (lemon juice) and 2.49 g to 0.21 g (orange juice) for the struvite crystals, respectively. The crystals harvested from the treated lemon and orange juices were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to confirm the functional groups. Results obtained indicated that lemon juice has the potential to inhibit the formation of struvitecrystals as compared to orange juice. This study confirms that using lemon juice can promote the formation of ammonium magnesium phosphate hexahydratecrystals and reduce the nucleation rate of struvitecrystals, a major component of urinary stone.