Development of some new chromogenic spray reagents for Thin layer chromatography and their applications in analysis of toxic materials

Abstract

In recent years there have been a large number of suicidal and accidental poi-soning cases of farmers. On an average 45 farmers commit suicide in India each day. Drought, lack of marketing skills among farmers, debt burden, poor implementation of government policies are some of the dominant reasons behind this unfortunate truth. Farmers regularly use pesticides for crop protection and are generally aware about the poisonous nature of these compounds. Pesticides are sold in the open market and any-one can easily purchase them. Thus, pesticides are used as easily available suicide weapons by them. Many cases of accidental poisoning due to consumption of pesti-cides unknowingly are also reported. Pesticides are also used in homicidal poisoning instances. Such cases are recorded in local police stations and they are sent for post-mortem. Post-mortem report reveals the presence of offensive material mainly in the stomach and intestine of the deceased person. However, they cannot predict the poison involved in such cases. All such cases are further referred to forensic investigation for chemical analysis popularly abbreviated as C.A. In all such cases, where death does not appear natural, doctors normally reserve their opinion until a chemical analysis report from the Forensic Science Laboratory is obtained. The poisoning cases are analyzed by the toxicology department of the laboratory. The chemical analyzer analyzes the viscera for the presence of any poison. If the poison is found, its quantitation is also performed. Based on this report, doctors provide an important document called final cause of death certificate. A report from the forensic expert is valid and strong evidence in court of law as it is based purely on careful scientific findings. The chemical analysis report has proven very useful in giving proper direction to investigation of a variety of cases. A case which initially looks like suicide by hanging may convert into a murder after a chemical analysis report is obtained. It can be easily understoo