Determination of nucleation assay for anti-urolithiasis activity from bagasse Musa acuminate x balbisiana Colla cv. Pisang Awak Legor methanolic extracts using uv-spectrometer and size measurement.

Abstract

Determination of inhibition of calcium oxalate (CaOx) crystallisation in vitro by nucleation assay is based on the rates of nucleation by comparing the slope of the turbidity of a control system with that of one exposed to the extract, which was found to be inaccurate when the CaOx crystals were formed and precipitated. A need exists for improved methods to determine the inhibition activity in nucleation assay for the study of anti-urolithiasis activity. In this study, the size reduction of CaOx crystals after treated with methanolic extract of Musa acuminate x balbisiana Colla cv. Pisang Awak Legor bagasse was measured under light microscopy and correlated to the turbidity and percentage of inhibition. Different concentrations of bagasse extract (2, 10, 30, 50 and 100 mg/ml) were investigated and the result shows that high concentration of extract would promote reduction in CaOx's stone size, but it increased the amount of sediment crystals, resulting high turbidity. The stone size was reduced up to 93.76±0.19% in the presence of 100 mg/mL extract while the inhibition percentage was negative (-102.17±0.04%) as the optical density (OD) of the extract was higher than control in the turbidity calculation. The results of this study are expected to provide an understanding on the way of calculating the activity in nucleation assay.