Journal of Forensic Chemistry and Toxicology

 Due to rise in crowds naturally there is fall in cultural values and escalation in crimes. Crime against women is on the rise especially sexual crimes. Though crime is prevalent in every country and society, most of them .either goes undetected or unreported. Forensic chemistry plays an important role in helping early detection, providing expert scientific reports at earliest, which will result in quick trial and instant administration of justice to victims. In the present communication a case of rape assault is reported in which Rhodamine B a cheap red dye used as a coloring agent in Holi festival identified by thin layer chromatographic analysis, ultraviolet spectroscopy and FT­IR analysis.

Keywords: Dye; Color; Rhodamine; Rape Assault. 

 The branch of science which deals with the study of cosmetics is known as cosmetology. Women love wearing makeup, as they feel it can help them enhance their beauty and make them feel and look more attractive and gorgeous. Further, according to Locard’s Principle of Exchange, “every contact leaves a trace”. Many of the violent crimes such as assaults, robberies, rapes and murders involve direct contact between the assailant and a female victim. Well known examples of some trace or associative evidences are hair, fibers, paint chips, broken glass fragments, soil particles, etc. Thus, a transfer of some type of cosmetic product is possible and, consequently, the clothing or body of the suspect may bear smeared traces of a cosmetic. The analysis of these smudges can provide circumstantial evidence connecting a suspect and victim or placing a suspect at the crime scene. This review is an effort for enlisting of various cosmetics and cosmeceuticals which may helpful in solving crimes against women.

 Alprazolam is as a high-potency benzodiazepine drug that is often encountered in medico-legal cases of drug facilitated sexual assaults, robberies and stupefying activities. Its detection by traditional color tests and thin layer chromatography is routinely done in forensic science laboratories using food and biological samples. In this study we have modified a color test and have tested various new solvent systems for TLC method of analysis of Alprazolam and have found that these can be successfully employed in routine analyses in FSLs so as to produce more effective results. 

 Aluminium phosphide is widely used as fumigant and pesticide. Its widespread use is associated with increased incidence of poisoning. Its poisoning occurs directly due to ingestion and indirectly due to inhalation. After coming into contact with gastric acid on ingestion, it produces phosphine, the main active component for poisoning. In medicolegal cases, aluminium phosphide poisoning is diagnosed by the presence of phosphine in the blood and tissue samples using silver nitrate test. An issue has been raised about the postmortem production of phosphine and hence, false positive result for phosphine with the test. In this study, postmortem blood was kept stored at room temperature for varying duration without any preservative. The blood samples were analysed for presence of phosphine using silver nitrate test. Aluminium phosphide poisoning cases gave positive results. No aluminium phosphide negative case showed positive result in this study. It was concluded that silver nitrate test doesn’t give false positive reaction with stored postmortem blood. 

Keywords: Aluminium Phosphide Poisoning; Ammonium Molybdate Test; Silver Nitrate Test; False Positive Test; Hydrogen Sulphide.   

Keywords: Heavy metals; Banana peel; Lead; Chemical treatment. 

 The benzodiazepines are most frequently encountered drugs in emergency toxicology screening, drugs of abuse testing and forensic medicine examinations. The identification of nitrazepam and clonazepam, the most frequently used benzodiazepines is described by simple, rapid and sensitive thin­layer chromatographic method. The structures of these benzodiazepines contain nitro group which is reduced by acidified stannous chloride to give amino group. This couples with diazotized sulphanilic acid to give a yellow brown coloured compound. The detection limit was found to be 3µg and 5µ per spot for nitrazepam and clonazepam respectively. The reaction was not given by other benzodiazepines commonly encountered in toxicological screening.

Keywords: Benzodiazepines; Thin­Layer Chromatography; Spray Reagent; Stannous Chloride; Sulphanilic Acid. 

Keywords: Oil; Fat; Fatty Acids; Thin Layer Chromatography. 

Keywords: CT; MR Imaging; 3D Surface Scanning; Virtopsy; Autopsy 

 The salts of Arsenic (As) are of great toxicological importance and can cause poisoning. The quantitative determination of traces of arsenic and its compounds is important to assess its harmful levels in environmental and biological samples. Therefore quantitative determination of traces of Arsenic in urine is very essential. Routinely, inductively coupled plasma, atomic absorption spectrometry, graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry were used for analysis of Arsenic. An attempt has been made to develop for determination of traces of Arsenic in urine using anodic stripping voltammetry. The analysis utilizes three electrode systems, Gold rotating disc electrode (RDE) as a working electrode, Ag/AgCl as a reference electrode and Glassy carbon electrode as an auxillary electrode. Urine was processed by closed digestion method using 34.5% nitric acid (HNO3). Determination of Arsenic was made by primary solution with a sweep rate of 20mV/s and pulse amplitude 50 mV by standard addition method. The solution was purged with nitrogen gas and cleaning was done at -1200 mV for 60 seconds and the potential was scanned from 300 mv to 400 mv on RDE with stirrer speed 2000 rpm. As (III) and As (IV) in HCl were reduced at -1200 mV by nascent hydrogen to As0 and was deposited at 0 mv for 10 sec. The deposited metal was sweeped by scanning the potential from -200 mV to 300 mV using DP mode. The stripping current arising was correlated with the concentration of the metal in the sample. The peak potential for Arsenic is 50 mV. The detection limit of Arsenic by this method was 1.0µg/l.