The primary nucleation and growth mechanism of cloxacillin sodium in methanol-butyl acetate system are determined on the basis of induction time measurements. The induction time of cloxacillin sodium is experimentally determined by the laser scattering method at different supersaturations and temperatures. The measured induction times are then treated using the models of mononuclear and polynuclear mechanisms. It is discovered that the primary nucleation mechanism of cloxacillin sodium is identified as polynuclear mechanism, which relates the induction time and the supersaturation for various growth mechanisms. On the basis of these analyses, the growth mechanism of cloxacillin sodium is two-dimensional nucleation-mediated growth at 285 K, and changes into spiral growth with increasing temperature (at 291 and 297 K). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.