title: Composition of some urinary calculi of ruminants in Western Australia.
abstract: Forty ruminant urinary calculi, selected as being essentially inorganic and mainly obtained from sheep grazing in the drier wheatbelt areas of Western Australia, were examined by optical and X-ray diffraction techniques. Four mineral types-silica (SiO2-nH2O), weddellite (CaC2O4-2H2O), calcite (CaCO3) and aragonite (CaCO3)--were found. These minerals were present respectively in 30, 17, 13 and 1 of the 40 calculi examined and were the sole component in 12, 0, 7, and 0 calculi. One calculus was found to be composed of organic material which was subsequently shown to consist mainly of 4'-O methyl equol (4'-methoxy-7-isoflavanol, C16H16O3) with a small amount of equol and a trace of formononetin. This is the first report of a calculus of this composition. Determinative data useful for identification of 4'o-methyl equol, equol and a related substance are presented in an appendix.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000378:metabolism*; D002839:Chromans / Q000032:analysis; D012756:Sheep; D012757:Sheep Diseases / Q000378:metabolism*; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis; D014545:Urinary Calculi / Q000662:veterinary*
chemical_list: D002839:Chromans; D012822:Silicon Dioxide