1st Flashcards
Study of the adverse effects of drugs and chemicals on biological systems
Toxicology
Deals with the application of toxicology to cases and issues where those adverse effects have administrative or medico - legal cosequences, and where the results are likely to be used in court
Forensic Toxicology
requires a relatively large amount for it to be lethal
Toxicant
requires a relatively small amount for it to be fatal
Poison
charged with the responsibility for detecting and identifying the presence of drugs and poisons in body fluids, tissues, and organs.
Toxicologist
work in crime laboratories, medical examiners’ offices, hospita laboratories and health facilities to identify a drug overdose or monitor the intake of drugs.
Toxicologists
process whereby specimen transfer is monitored from TOC up to the actual testing to ensure that evidence is secure or protected from tampering
chain of custody
a process of modifying original compound / di for enhanced analytical detection-
Derivatization
the amount of drug, metabolite or other toxin in a given volume of plasma, urine, other fluid, tissue homogenate, etc. (e.g. Ag/mL, ng/mL, pg/mL
Drug or toxin concentration
a person (police officer, scientist braphysician) who is engaged in forensic investigations
Forensic Practitioner
the biological effects produced by a substance (i.e. toxicity); hazards pose risks only if the exposure is sufficiently high
Hazard
pertaining to the minute structure of animal and plant tissues as discernible with the microscope
Histological
process of prep tissue for analysis by grinding a tissue sample in a specified volume of water
Homogenization
a medical investigation performed b specially trained forensic medical practitioners, often in conjunction wi forensic scientists, to determi he the cause and manner of death
Medico - legal death investigation (MLDI)
the sum of the processes by which a particular substance is handled in the living body
Metabolism
a product of metabolism
Metabolite
recognized toxicological phenomenon of an increase in drug concentration after death
Post- mortem redistribution
biological samples collected from a living or deceased person
Specimen
containing or being poisonous material especially when capable of causing death or serious debilitation
Toxic
biological samples collected from a living or deceased person
Specimen
the biological effect of a substance; in this context, toxicity and hazard are used interchangeably
Toxicity
first highly significant individual in the history of forensic toxicology
Paracelsus
“All substances are poisons: there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison & a remedy
Paracelsus
father of modern toxicology.
- His treatise Traite des Poisons
published in 1814 laid the fondations
of forensic toxicology.
Bonaventure Orfila
published a
simplified English version titled A
Treatise on Poisons.
Robert Christison
German pharmaceutical chemist: converted arsenic trioxide to arsine gas using HNO in the presence of Zn.
•Carl Wilhelm Scheele
an. English chemist who developed a test (“arsenic mirror”) to detect this poison in biological specimens in 1836
James Marsh
became the first person to be convicted of murder by poisoning
• Testing for Arsenic
•Birth of forensic toxicology
Marie Lafarge
father of Toxicology
In 1813, wrote the first complete work of international importance on the subject of forensic toxicology
Mathieu J.B Orfila
His work mainly centered around
Arsenic
Mathieu j.B Orfila
used as rat poison & a favorite murder weapon among poor people
Arsenic
developed a complex system for the extraction of unknown poisons from biological specimens based on the chemical properties of the substances.
Jean Stas and Friedrich Otto
