Multiple Drug Analysis ofChrysomya albicepsLarvae Provides Important Forensic Insights to Unravel Drug-Associated Mortalities

Abstract

The primary aim of forensic entomotoxicology is to unravel drug-associated mortalities. This study was designed to analyze and determine impacts of multiple drugs (amitriptyline, citalopram, diazepam and morphine) on the development of Chrysomya albiceps larvae. For this purpose, a domesticated pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) was injected with a toxic dose (54.4 mg) of morphine before euthanizing with diazepam (510 mg), citalopram (476 mg) and amitriptyline (5100 mg) by gavage method. A total of five hundred maggots were collected and residual drugs in collected larvae were determined using gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS). Analysis of maggots showed that the Chrysomya albiceps is the major species. All three drugs were quantified (amitriptyline: 91.45 µg/kg, citalopram: 52.03 µg/kg, and morphine: 5.37 µg/kg) in developing larvae. Moreover, our results showed that at an average temperature of 35°C, Chrysomya albiceps reached the third larval stage in 72 hours. These findings clearly articulate that toxic substances alter the biological life cycles of the arthropods, consequently making forensic entomotoxicology essential for certain quantitative analyses and potential effects on the post-mortem interval. This paper represents the first entomotoxicology study in Turkey using multiple drugs.