Journal of Forensic Chemistry and Toxicology

In the practice of Forensic medicine, firearm injuries cases pose a challenge, particularly those caused during the police/armed forces action also known as ‘Encounter’. Autopsy reports play a very important role in recreation/ reconstruction of the event and are an important evidence for review by other agencies. The track of the wounds, direction of firing, site of entry and exit wounds along with other internal injuries are used to authenticate and verify the version of police officers. Authors have observed that in certain cases of death consequent to firearm injury, sometimes atypical wounds are found which may be difficult to interpret at the time of performing autopsy. A meticulous postmortem examination coupled with cautious analysis and interpretation of injuries has to be done before furnishing a Medico legal opinion in such cases. The authors report such a case in which an atypical firearm wound was found in a police encounter case. The case is being reported only for academic purposes to highlight the importance of correct interpretation in such atypical wounds by a meticulous autopsy examination so as to prevent any further doubts in their correlation with sequence of events. Modern radiological techniques like Digital X-ray and PM MSCT should be used in firearm cases to enhance the objectivity and credibility of postmortem findings.

Post-mortem interval (PMI) is a major component of investigation in forensic science. It is one of the fundamental tasks for forensic pathologist when a body is found. According to criminal law point of view, a correct estimation of the PMI allows authentication of witness statements, thus restrict the number of suspects. Accurate PMI estimation is difficult because of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Analysis of the biochemical changes in glucose and electrolytes for PMI estimation has made significant progress. Molecular ways in which measurable or quantifiable technique for degradation of nucleic acid molecule such as DNA and RNA, may be the good indicator for PMI. Several studies have tried to determine changes in molecular markers to provide more useful information for PMI. The studies demonstrated mixed results that showed the influence of ante and post-mortem factors on nucleic acid degradation. More studies would be required in order to standardize on human cases under standard parameters. Thus, molecular aspects of forensic involves this application of omicsin medical sciences to investigate cause of death and its process at the genetic basis and biological molecular level.

The study was undertaken to calculate the uncertainty of results, related to the analysis of 28 pesticides present in green chilli. Gas Chromatography Electron Capture Detector was used for the analysis of above pesticides present in green chilli. Bottom-up approach was taken for calculation of uncertainty sources arise from weighing, purity of standards, repeatability, calibration and recovery study. To calculate the total uncertainty, relative uncertainty due to purity of standard (U1), due to weighing (U2) and precision (U3) are considered. The combined uncertainty (U) was calculated by equation: U = [(U1)2+(U2)2+(U3)2]1/2. Expanded uncertainty (2U) was twice of combined uncertainty (U) at 95% confidence level. Combined uncertainty values lies between 0.0007-0.0035. Percent uncertainty of almost all the pesticides taken for study was found below ≤10% except beta HCH percent uncertainty value is 11% lies in 11-15% range and lambdacyhalothrin value is 16% lies in 15-20% range.

Dicyclomine Hydrochloride belongs to a class of synthetic anticholinergics. It is regularly used for the treatment of spasmodic pain, spasmodic dysmenorrhea, and renal, ureteric and biliary colic. This drug is easily available in the market and can be abused for suicidal purposes. Its unsupervised use can lead to abuse, accidental poisoning along with the occasional report of intentional suicidal poisoning. Hence its analysis is very important for medicolegal purposes.Biological samples of choice for routine qualitative analysis of drug is liver, stomach content, whole blood, and urine. Routine toxicological procedures employ highly sophisticated state of the art instruments like High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Gas Liquid Chromatography (GLC) and Liquid ChromatographyMass Spectrophotometer (LC-MS) for the estimation of drug from biological and non-biological matrices but the present paper deals with an attempt to analyse the drug extracted from the biological sample of interest using a simple, feasible and optimal method with the help of Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). The study involves the extraction of the drug from matrix (blood), using Liquid-Liquid Extraction method of alkaline plasma followed by its separation and identification by Thin Layer Chromatography. The present paper describes a simple, economical, reproducible sample extraction, clean-up and detection method that can be easily attempted in a laboratory.