Abstract
Recent advancements in analytical techniques have greatly contributed to the analysis of latent fingermarks’ (LFMs) “touch chemistry” and identification of materials that a suspect might have come into contact with. This type of information about the FM donor is valuable for criminal investigations because it narrows the pool of suspects. It is estimated that at least 30 million people around the world take over-the-counter and prescription nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for pain relief, headaches and arthritis every day. The daily use of such drugs can lead to an increased risk of their abuse. In the present study, Raman spectroscopy combined with multivariate statistical analysis was used for the detection and identification of drug traces in LFMs when NSAID tablets of aspirin, ibuprofen, diclofenac, ketoprofen and naproxen have been touched. Partial least squares discriminant analysis of Raman spectra showed an excellent separation between natural FMs and all NSAID-contaminated FMs. The developed classification model was externally validated using FMs deposited by a new donor and showed 100% accuracy on a FM level. This proof-of-concept study demonstrated the great potential of Raman spectroscopy in the chemical analysis of LFMs and the detection and identification of drug traces in particular.
Highlights
Recent advancements in analytical techniques have greatly contributed to the analysis of latent fingermarks’ (LFMs) “touch chemistry” and identification of materials that a suspect might have come into contact with
Due to the large number of drugs that can be employed for these purposes, we selected nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) tablets for our proof-of-concept study because they are common drugs that can be found in any household and can be purchased OTC without a prescription at a low cost
NSAIDs misuse has been reported in horse doping, they may be encountered in clinical, forensic toxicological analyses and in horse doping control[28]
Summary
Recent advancements in analytical techniques have greatly contributed to the analysis of latent fingermarks’ (LFMs) “touch chemistry” and identification of materials that a suspect might have come into contact with. The developed classification model was externally validated using FMs deposited by a new donor and showed 100% accuracy on a FM level This proof-of-concept study demonstrated the great potential of Raman spectroscopy in the chemical analysis of LFMs and the detection and identification of drug traces in particular. Several analytical techniques have been employed for the chemical analysis of FMs, such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS)[7], ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS)[8], laser desorption/ ionization-mass spectrometry (LDI-MS)[9] and others Owing to their inherent nondestructive nature and the need for little to no sample pretreatment, vibrational spectroscopic techniques, including Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, have great potential in forensic applications[10,11,12]. FM contaminated with cosmetics on porous and nonporous surfaces have been analyzed[19]
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