The effect of concentration of structurally-different carboxylic acids such as ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid （H4edta）, citric acid （H3cit）, tartaric acid （H2tart）, and acetic acid （HOAc） on growth and aggregation of calcium oxalate （CaOxa） in gel systems was comparatively investigated. H2tart and H3cit could change the morphology of cal- cium oxalate monohydrate （COM） and induce the formation of calcium oxalate dihydrate （COD）. H4edta could induce the formation of COD at a lower concentration of 0.33 mmol/L and have the strongest ability to inhibit aggregation of COM. HOAc inhibited COM aggregation only at a higher concentration than 500 mmol/L. With increasing the number of carboxylic groups in an acid or increasing the concentration of carboxylic acid, the capacity of this acid to induce COD formation and to inhibit growth and aggregation of COM crystals increased. That is, this capacity followed the order： H4edta〉H3cit〉H2tart〉 〉HOAc. The result in this work suggested that the presence of H3cit and H2tart in urine played a role in the natural defense against stone formation.
