Publication details
Mineralogy of calcium oxalate hydrates in plants of the Araceae family
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| Citation | |
| Description | Plants contain various biominerals, including calcium oxalate, calcium carbonate, and amorphous silica. Ca-oxalates are represented by three hydrated forms: whewellite (monohydrate-COM), weddellite (dihydrate-COD), and caoxite (trihydrate-COT). The most common mineral is COM, while COD and COT are metastable phases. Plant crystals form from endogenously synthesized oxalic acid and calcium from the environment. We used 10 species of plants from the Araceae family, with 2 representatives from each, and we divided the plants according to the cut from the leaf and from the petiole. In the sections, we detected CaOx with the polarizing microscope, and with the Raman spectroscope, we determined the type of CaOx (COM, COD, or COT). The occurrence of COD and COT were subsequently confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Different plants contain different morphologies and hydrates. All three CaOx hydrates were found in 5 plant species, the most common CaOx hydrates is COM, while COD and COT were less represented. In studied plants COT is bound to the petiole but not detected in the leaf, COD is mainly in the petiole, similarly in the margin of the leaf and in the part next to the main vein, and COM is the most common, found mainly in the leaves but less in the petiole. The morphology of COT varies within the species—round or square aggregates or sand; the morphology of COD varies—round aggregates are mainly formed in the petiole, less in the leaves, here they mainly form dipyramids, and the COM morphology uniformly consists of raphides and druses, less prisms, or round aggregates. |