Drugs and Chemistry

Walter McCrone and Microchemistry

Negative head and torso views of the Shroud of Turin, dated May 18, 2006 P Deliss Godong Corbis At first it might seem as if history, forensic chemistry, and microscopes have little in common. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many chemical tests used as part of forensic chemistry and toxicology can be performed on a small scale, so small that the results require the use of a microscope to observe. Specialized tests and analyses using microscopes have also been developed and used. The...

Absorbed Poisons

It is possible to absorb a fatal dose of a poison, even through protective gloves. Toxicologists played an important role in the investigation of the illness and death of Karen Wetterhahan, a professor in the Dartmouth College Department of Chemistry, in February 1997. Wetterhahan, 48, was using dimethyl mercury CH3-Hg-CH3 in her research. As described in a report issued by the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration OSHA , the incident occurred while she was working in a fume hood...

M J B Orfila The Father of Forensic Toxicology

Orfila (National Library of Medicine) Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure (Mateu Josep Bonaventura) Orfila (1 787-1853) was born in Catalonia, Spain, but as a medical student moved to France, where he worked and became professor of forensic chemistry and dean of the medical faculty at the University of Paris. He began publishing articles describing his work early in his career his first paper on poisons appeared in 1814, when he was 26 years old. Orfila spent a good deal of time...

Drugs as evidence

The analysis of materials suspected to be or to contain controlled substances represents the largest portion of the workload in most forensic laboratories. When suspected controlled substances are submitted as physical evidence (exhibits), the forensic chemist must identify and in some cases quantify the controlled substances present. The most common forms of evidence seen can be summarized as the five p's powders, plant matter, pills, precursors, and paraphernalia. Powders run the gamut of...

Paracelsus A Grandfather of Forensic Toxicology

Paracelsus (1493-1541) was a colorful eccentric, alchemist, philosopher, and writer with unconventional ideas and enormous experimental skills. He was born into a Swiss family and named Philipus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. The name Bombastus was appropriate, yet he assumed the name Paracelsus, which means greater than Celsus, a physician in Rome during the first century c.E. From his early teens Paracelsus moved frequently between universities, gathering knowledge and moving...

The Most Toxic Substance

Everything from dioxin (an environmental contaminant) to plutonium (a synthetic radioactive element) has been called the most toxic material ever known or made. Looking at the LD50 alone and ignoring for the moment that some people will be tolerant and some susceptible, the substance generally considered most toxic is the botulinum toxin. This toxin causes the disease called botulism, or botulism poisoning, and it has an LD50 of 0.00001 mg kg, meaning that one gram of this substance would be...