Forensic Identification of Urine and Saliva mixture using chemical tests and UV Spectrophotometry

Abstract

Study of body fluids for forensic analysis is not just limited to its DNA constituents, it also encompasses the chemical composition which is the contents in the body fluids is extremely important when it comes to a spot chemical test from crime scenes or even the final analysis. Identification of body fluids using presumptive chemical tests and confirmatory instrumental analysis is well established in the field of forensic science, but its highly likely to find mixture of body fluids from the crime scene as well. So far there are no standardized methods to individually identify body fluids from their mixture. This paper aims to test the possibility of identifying urine and saliva individually from their mixture, which is a common encounter in sexual assaults crime scenes, using chemical tests and UV spectroscopy. While the typical presumptive assays conducted for urine and saliva could not identify their traces separately however UV spectroscopy identified the fluid mixture giving unique peaks pertaining to urine and saliva.