The purpose of this paper was to develop a tableting technology of
barbital buffer as a standard diluent easy in use for
complement fixation test (CFT). As starting point,
barbital (
veronal)
buffer after Alton et al. [1] was assumed. Among 4 solubilizers
polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP 10 000) was chosen, which provided a good solubility of the
barbital in distilled water at 20 degrees C and it affected favourably the
complement activity (C'). PVP 10 000 added to the components of
barbital buffer at an amount of 0.275 per 10
tablets, in the form of
solution for granulation, provided the required physical properties of the
tablets. As compared with the
barbital buffer after Alton et al. [1], the
tablets produced affected favourably C' activity, decreased the range of spontaneous haemocyte lysis, and they did not effect CFT titers of two anti-Brucella abortus standard sera as well as 77 sera of cattle infected with
brucellosis under natural conditions. The described physical and
biological properties of the
barbital buffer tablets with PVP addition indicate their usability as diluent for CFT. A standard diluent used in the form of
tablets in all Poland's laboratories should provide a better reproducibility of CFT results in diagnostic examinations towards
brucellosis as well as other
infectious diseases in men and animals.