Journal of Forensic Chemistry and Toxicology

Introduction: Filicide, defined as the deliberate act of a parent killing their own child, is not uncommon in India and usually occurs if the child is female. Females are killed off even before they are born, as they are considered to be a burden to the parents and family. The risk of a child being killed is highest during the first year of life. The child may be killed by the perpetrator by using knives, blunt objects, manual strangulation, poisoning and drowning. Case Details: A body of a seven months female was brought for autopsy with the alleged history of accidental fall in a bucket of water and subsequent drowning. On external examination multiple abraded dermal contusions were found on the neck along with one crescentic shaped abrasion. On dissection hematoma was present over the underlying muscles. Pulmonary findings were within normal limits. The mother declared that she was alone in the house with the child at the time of alleged drowning. Later after exhaustive police investigation, she confessed to murdering her daughter. She clarified that she was suffering from depression, marital discord and was apprehensive that the female child was only a financial burden to their family. Conclusion: The article discusses about the reasons that prompt a mother to kill her own child and if a female child is that much a burden to the family that she does not deserve even an iota of chance to live. Further research is needed to improve identification of children and mothers at risk. Suggestions for prevention are made based on current literature and the authors’ experience.

Violence against women is any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical,
sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of
liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. Domestic violence can be defined as a pattern of behavior
in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. Abuse can be
physical, sexual, emotional, economic or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person.
This includes any behaviors that frighten, intimidate, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, injure or wound
someone. Domestic violence can happen to any couple irrespective of their race, age, sexual orientation, religion,
gender, socio-economic backgrounds and education levels. The management of domestic violence essentially
requires combined effort of law enforcement, social welfare and healthcare services. The current article throws light
on three separate incidents of domestic violence, where the victim was forced to commit suicide, but employing a
different method in each case e.g. hanging, burning & consuming poison.

Estimation of Postmortem Interval (PI) or Time since Death (TSD) is an important objective of post-mortem examination which connects an accused to the particular moment of time to prove his guilt or innocence. This plays an essential role in investigation of medico legal cases. In India, the PI/TSD is estimated on the basis of naked eye changes after death and it is always mentioned in every post-mortem report done by the Forensic Pathologist. This estimation is always a challenge for Forensic pathologists due to various variable factors. The authors present a case of a person who died in unknown time duration and the external changes observed were differential in different parts of the body, a phenomenon rarely cited in standard literature. The authors recommend intensive studies to be initiated in Indian settings to determine a scientific data for the actual time taken for the process of decomposition.

Mitochondrial DNA has more useful genetic information as compared to nucleic DNA because they are present in more number per cell. In decomposed or old biological samples nuclear material in the cell may not exist for a long period, so it is difficult to perform DNA analysis with the nuclear DNA from remains of biological samples. This high copy number in mtDNA increases the possibility of recovering sufficient DNA from compromised samples. For this reason, mtDNA can play an important role in the identification of missing person investigation, in mass disasters and other forensic investigations involving samples with limited biological material. Additionally, mtDNA is maternally inherited. Therefore, barring a mutation, an individual's mother, siblings, as well as all other maternally-related family members will have identical mtDNA sequences. As a result, forensic comparisons can be made using a reference sample from any maternal relative, even if the unknown and reference sample are separated by many generations. Anthropologically, mitochondrial DNA in the fossilised source is used to trace the human ancestry particularly of maternal lineage.

Antidepressants are the most prescribed for depression. The exact mechanism of action of antidepressant is unknown. The prevailing theory is that antidepressants increase the concentration of one or more brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) that nerves in the brain use to communicate with one another. The neurotransmitters affected by antidepressants are nor epinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. The different classes of antidepressants differ in the neurotransmitters they affect. This determines some of their side effects and potential drug interactions. All available antidepressants are effective and for most cases of depression there is no good evidence that any antidepressant is more effective than another. Side effects and potential drug interactions are major factors that influence selection of antidepressants. This article highlights some forensic aspects, their types, side effects and potential drug interactions of the major antidepressants classes.

In India a registered medical graduate having MBBS degree is legally authorized to treat a medicolegal case and prepare the injury report. He is also required to opine about the nature of injury, possible weapon of offence and manner of injury to assist the crime investigation. Forensic Medicine is taught in the MBBS curriculum, but the studentsgenerally don’t get enough practical exposure to deal with medicolegal cases of injury reporting and opining. Most of them learn while on service when situation compel them to handle medicolegal cases and are summoned by the court of law to depose the medical evidence. It has to be realized that medical evidence is animportant corroborative evidence for guiding the investigation and the court of law. It needs to be dealtin a prudent way, scientifically and professionally. This article is an attempt to address the dilemma faced by the physicians, dealing with medicolegal cases of injury reporting and giving expert opiningand evidence in the court of law for the deliverance of justice in the state legal system.

Zinc is an essential component of the body, but its excess quantity is harmful and long term intake above upper limits causes acute or chronic toxicity. Normal levels of zinc in serum is 75-120 µg/dL while in blood it is 1200 µg/dL. A study was conducted to determine the level of zinc in various biological samples from the medicolegal autopsies conducted at mortuary, Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Biological samples were taken from 100 cases comprising of Blood, Liver & Stomach contents from each case. They were analysed using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrophotometry (ICP-AES). The data obtained were analysed using various demographic profiles and treatment history to know prevalence & distribution of these metals in general population so as to help later in investigation of alleged deaths due to metal toxicity & metallic compounds poisoning. The result showed mean blood zinc levels were 14.21 μg/ ml (range 0-77.36 μg/ml), mean zinc levels in liver and stomach contents were 25.66 μg/g (range 0.72–127.03 μg/g) and 7.95 μg/ml (range 0–60.94 μg/ml) respectively. The data analysis on the basis of treatment history showed that mean zinc levels in blood, liver and stomach contents were higher in cases where treatment was not given i.e. 14.97 µg/ml, 15.25 µg/g and 8.18 µg/ml respectively.

The major functions of lubricating oils is the reduction of friction and wear by the separation of surfaces, metallic or plastic, which are moving with respect to each other. The few Indian infringers are engaged in cheating, substandard and duplication cases forensic scientist and police facing problems with rapid increase in different types of Mobil oils having hydrocarbons and other additives. Which can be used for comparison purpose keeping in this view a protocol for rapid screening and analysis of these type of material by using physical parameters, thin layer chromatography and FT-IR spectral analysis have developed to differentiate fake (used) Mobil oil and genuine unused branded Mobil oils. The present work describes the discrimination of fake and genuine Mobil oils on the basis of physical parameters, thin layer chromatography and FT-IR analysis.

One of the important aspect of arson investigation is to study the burn patterns or characteristics resulting from various accelerants. In India, the basic accelerants which are used to set fire to a scene include petrol, diesel and kerosene. This research article is based on the different types of burn patterns on plastered wall resulting from the use of three different accelerants which are being commonly used to set fire to a scene. Fire was initiated by spilling the accelerant on the plastered wall to simulate the scene of arson. An equal amount of each accelerant was taken for experimental purposes. The burn patterns provided by the three accelerants namely petrol, diesel and kerosene on the plastered wall shows some varying characteristics which help in differentiating the patterns caused by these accelerants. It is expected that results provided by this research will help the arson investigators in the investigation process.

In recent years, awareness regarding the quality of food has gradually increased as per the increase in consumer demands. One of the most important parts of the food is alcoholic beverages. Many additives such as caramel, sugar, water, etc. are added to improve the aroma volume, and color of alcoholic beverages. Caramel colors are dark brown substances often added in alcoholic beverages to give the more alluring appearance. However, many metabolites of caramel colors such as 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (5 HMF) are toxic in nature. Many studies show that in controlled concentrations, caramel colors don’t pose any threat. Therefore, it is exigent to monitor the concentration of such additives. Moreover, these colors are present in trace amounts and require extensive sample preparation methods. In the present study, an attempt has been made to identify and detect caramel colors in various factory-made and commercial liquors using derivative Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry. It was observed that peak maxima of 281 nm of zero order spectra; in first-order spectra peak maxima of 260nm and peak minima of 290 nm can prove to be very effective in the identification of caramel colors. Derivative UV-Vis spectrophotometry thus, has proved to be an effective, non-destructive technique which requires minimal sample preparation.

Background: The Postmortem in Computed tomography (PMCT) had been started from since 1990. PMCT advantages are more relevant in full-body examination (FBE) through scan is quite helpful to assess the whole body scan with clear evidence and computed recorded data. Material and methods: Here trying to justify the PMCT application, analysis and its interpretation in cadaveric, CT examination test before autopsy test to know the causes of death (COD), cause of injury (COI) and other additional information related to image study. Inclusion Criteria: The original contribution selected form (1990 to 2019) is included in study. Exclusion Criteria: An irrelevant study or any case study subject excluded from this study. Statistical analysis: Here simple statistics used from the available database for interpretation. Results: PMCT in analysis given more than (70-90%) better picture than the autopsy test. It clearly analyzed the cause of death (COD), manners of injury (MOI), and personal of identification (POI) through the postmortem examination (PME) and its development in the field of forensic medicine and toxicological research (FMTR). Conclusion: PMCT technology newly added and highly recommendable for correct information through their slice images. So many types of variables (TOVs) may easily compare and predict through the different informative slice images (DISIs) to use the accurate application on forensic medicine and toxicological angle.

A depletion series was used to evaluate the relative sensitivity of a number of fluorescent powder compositions on a non porous surface. A set of exemplar finger impressions of one particular finger successively impinged on to aluminium foil without recharging the sweat secretions was considered in this investigation. Amongst the studied fluorescent dye based compositions, Rhodamine B and Fluorescein based compositions were adjudged to give best results in terms of ridge clarity of depletion marks.

Detection and quantification of ethanol in drunken driving cases is of immense importance inforensic toxicology. Despite several analytical methods being available for identification of ethanol in blood, an accurate quantification with minimum sample preparation and rapid analysis is still an ongoing task. The present study evaluates the suitability of Headspace-Chromatography with a capillary column and Flame Ionisation Detector as a method for determining the ethanol content in whole blood samples received for the blood alcohol concentration analysis. An internal standard ‘n-propanol’ was added to the sample to authenticate the results. The peaks areas were measured and calculations were carried out considering peak ratios of analyte to internal standard. The total run time of GC and HS was 20.68 min. The validation study for the method resulted in linearity for a range of 7.9 mg- 237 mg/100 ml, coefficient of variance (R2) was 0.999. Recovery of more than 96% was achieved in spiked samples. LOD and LOQ were 0.20 mg/100 ml and 1.0 mg/100 ml respectively. Blood ethanol measurement by this method is an easy, simple, reliable and reproducible.