Article
An Improvement of Calcium Determination Technique in the Shell of Molluscs
Registro en:
SOÍDO, Cristiane: et al. An Improvement of Calcium Determination Technique in the Shell of Molluscs. Braz. Arch. Biol. Technol., v.52, n.1, p.9-98, Jan / Feb 2009.
1516-8913
1678-4324
Autor
Soído, Cristiane
Vasconcellos, Maurício Carvalho
Diniz, Antônia Gonçalves
Pinheiro, Jairo
Resumen
The complexometric method is usually applied to quantitative calcium determination in different materials; however
the application of this method to calcium determination in molluscs shells infers significant interferences to the
results. The snail Bradybaena similaris, a terrestrial gastropod, was used as experimental model to the improvement
of this method. The shells were calcinated and dissolved in nitric acid, the hydrogen peroxide was also used to
clarify the medium after the acid addition. The calcination procedure and the use of nitric acid reduced the
significantly the interferences, allowing a major degree of destruction of the organic substances of the shell. The
improvement of the calcium determination technique usually employed showed calcium content of 874.24 ± 56.617
mg of CaCO3/g of ash in comparison to the conventional technique that allowed the determination of 607.79 ±
67.751 mg of CaCO3/g of shell, wet weight.