Toxicological Evidence

By: Abdur Rehman

PhD Scholar
Biochemistry

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 Toxicological Evidence
• Advances of Synthetic Chemistry Diversify the
Poison in modern era:
– People take medication & chemical then ever before
– Combination of drugs and its side effect complicate
poisoning detection
– Poison detection need collaborative approach among
practitioner, pathologist, MLO, forensic scientist

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 Approach towards toxicological evidence
1. Toxicological evidence forensic aspect:
• Medicine in toxic dose; Poison & Poison in small dose;
medicine
• For Example ; Chloral Hydrate 300 mg is hypnotic & 3gm
act knock out drop (poison) use for robbery, rape cases
• Barbiturates small dose treat insomnia, but coma & death
in normal person

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• Proof of poisoning can be assist by following factors
– Sign & Symptoms , suggesting toxic exposure
– Autopsy findings
– Evidence of pathological lesions
– Conclusive evidence; absorption of toxic substance n tissue

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2. Toxicological evidence analytical aspect
• Detection of poisons in biological/non biological material
in low concentration
• The proof to find, absorbed toxic substance in tissue of
visceral organ/blood/urine
• If specific substance suspected, direct analysis can be
made
• As rule general systematic toxicological examination
preferred even if particular poison suspected

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• Poisoning as a possible cause of death, facilitated by
– Scene Investigation ( Prescription, medications etc)
– History of case
– Autopsy findings
– Gross/Microscopic findings
• Addition histopathological, biochemical & serological
forensic examination helpful
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• Putrefaction & Toxicological Analysis: it complicates
toxicological analysis, problem in interpretation of results
– Chemical changes in tissue , toxic substance hard to identify e.g
parathion, aconite
– Putrefaction produce toxic substance from normal tissue, interfere
in result
– Volatile substance lost due to putrefaction
– Ethy alcohal may produced from normal tissue in advance
putrefaction
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 3. Toxicological evidence interpretation

• Apart from detection , concentration of poison

required in some cases
• Interpretation of quantitative data, i.e fatal dose of
poison
• Record of poison & knowledge of toxicokinetics is
important
• During reporting extreme care should be taken
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 Toxicological evidence interpretation cont..

1) No History/ No Clue of Poison: general scheme of

study give negative result e.g insulin
2) History Of Poisoning, No positive findings: it could
happened if
a) The poison vomited out, detoxified or small quantity
– e.g succinyl choline injected as homicide, metabolized in body to
succinate & choline; which are normal constituent of body tissue

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 Toxicological evidence interpretation cont..
b) Less poison directly associated with higher time gap b/w
ingestion & death
c) The absorbed poison not evenly distributed;
organ/tissues
d) Rout of administration varies concentration e.g orally vs
IV varies conc in blood & liver
e) Too little specimen; hard to detect
f) Highly potent toxic substance (low LD)
g) Victim treated may alter poison nature
Note: don’t interpret report as “No Poison detected”
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 Toxicological evidence interpretation cont..

3) Alteration by Biochemical Process: isolated

material may not identical due to alteration by
biochemical process such as
– Finding phenobarbitone when primidone has been taken
– Finding oxazepam when diazepam has been taken
– Finding Morphine if heroin is involved

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 Toxicological evidence interpretation cont..

4) Lethal/therapeutic Dose varies: a substance

may varies from slight effect to over dosage, lethal
dose cant be fixed
– Happened due to personal variation e.g age, sex, weight
5) Degree of Uncertainty: in quantitative
measurement the reasonable range of probable
error would be around 2 +SD-.
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 Toxicological evidence interpretation cont..

6) Normal vs Observed Concentration of

Poison: toxic substance may or may not present
normally in body
– If present such as insecticides due to environmental
pollution its magnitude may be determined
– E.g average arsenic content of 1/2ppm but up to 4ppm may
be considered normal, chronic long term arsenic poisoning
may result in 70 ppm of arsenic in hairs & nails
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 Reference
• Text book of Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology, BV Subrahmanym Seventh edition

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