Analytical Methods of Compounds in Biological Specimens: Applications in Forensic Toxicology

Toxicology is defined as the study of adverse effects of drugs, chemicals and any other xenobiotics on biological systems. Forensic toxicology is the application of toxicology cases and issues where the results are likely to be used in court. It is a modern science combining disciplines such as analytical chemistry, biology, pharmacology and clinical chemistry to help medical or legal investigations of death, poisoning, and drug use. Most widely, forensic toxicology is applied in postmortem toxicology, human performance, doping control and work place drug testing. The analytical methods and techniques are basically summarized in two categories of forensic tests used to analyze drugs and other unknown substances: Presumptive tests (such as color tests) which give only an indication of which type of substance is present, but they can't specifically identify the substance; Confirmatory tests that are more specific and can determine with precision the identity of the substance. Confirmatory tests include chromatography techniques such as gas chromatography (GC)/mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In this review, the drugs commonly investigated for forensic purposes, the specimens and samplingare reviewed. The analytical methods and techniques are described enough in order to give a guidance for identifying both qualitatively and quantitatively unknown powders, liquids and pills that may be illicit drugs.