Abstract

Burn severity on women victims of reported immolation attempt cases through gas chromatographic analysis of residuals and simulates

Author(s): N.Vani, P.R.Jayaramu, B.M.Mohan, G.Nagendrappa

Unburnt and partly burnt cloth samples of the bride reported to be burnt with kerosene were received to the Forensic Science Laboratories. The samples were analyzed using Gas Chromatograph with capillary column and a sensitive Pulse Discharge HeliumIonizationDetector. To simulate the real situation of bride burning a set of five samples of cotton cloth measuring 10 x 10 inch was taken and each was sprinkled with known amount of kerosene and burnt for different intervals of time. The burnt portion of the cotton fabrics was sampled by steamdistillation followed by extraction into diethyl ether for identification of the residual volatiles by GC. The chromatographic profiles of simulated cotton fabrics were used as standards and were compared with those of pure n-paraffins and those of the samples the victims of reported two cases, the case 1 and the case 2.Analyses of the pattern ofGC profiles and the ratio of peak area of C14 to C13were used for estimating the severity of burn injury of the victims.