Correction concerning Electron Paramagnetic Resonance in Human Bone Mineral

Abstract

A COMPLEX resonance has appeared in bone mineral, prepared by refluxing in ethylenediamine and washed free of the solvent with distilled water^1,2. In a further attempt to characterize this resonance, non-aqueous solvents were used as washing agents and no resonances were consistently obtained in the prepared mineral. Subsequently, spectroscopic examination of the distilled water has shown it to contain 0.02–0.2 mg of copper/l. This and the virtual identity of the resonance shape with that of the absorbed cupric ion^3–6 leave little doubt that the previously reported resonance from bone mineral was a powder spectrum of the adsorbed cupric ion. The same is also true of the similar resonance found in extracted bone collagen. We have now found no consistent resonances from bone mineral when it is rinsed free of the solvent in distilled–deionized water. This agrees with the results of a spectrographic analysis of the bone mineral similarly prepared (Table 1).