Laurie
The stain tha you are refering to is Heidenhain's Azan stain. It is a
beautiful strain with strong vibrant colors but often requires some fine
tuning.
While this is a stain that I would prefer, in truth, many of the
trichromes including Mallory's trichrome can be used to distinguish
osteoid from mineralized bone.
The most important thing is that if you are carrying out measurements on
the amount of osteoid that you use thin sections so that there is no
penumbra effect.
Barry


Laurie Colbert wrote:

> Does anyone know of a special stain for unmineralized bone (pre-bone
> material)?  Is there a stain called Azan(?) for this?
>
> Laurie Colbert
> Huntington Memorial Hospital
> Pasadena, CA