Toxicological Analysis of Insects on the Corpse: a Valuable Source of Information in Forensic Investigations
-
Mojtaba Salimi
,
Yavar Rassi
,
Omid Chatrabgoun
,
Artin Kamali
,
Mohammad Ali Oshaghi
,
Vida Shiri-Ghaleh
,
Mehrdad Moradi
,
Sayena Rafizadeh
,
Kameran Akbarzadeh
,
Seyedeh Zahra Parkhideh
Abstract
Background: Entomotoxicology as a subset of forensic entomology can be used by analysis of carcass feeding insects to detecting of drugs or toxins, as well as the cause and manner of death in cases of ante-mortem drugs intoxication. Morphine is one of the deacetylate metabolites of heroin. The aim of this study was to determine the presence and quantity of morphine in insects on the carcass and compare them with decomposing carcass.
Methods: Field of this study was in Chalabeh District and toxicological tests were carried out at the Department of Forensic Toxicology, Legal Medicine Center, Kermanshah, Iran in 2017. Morphine was inoculated into live rabbit as experimental model at concentrations of 12.5, 25, 50mg/ml, similar to those normally encountered in human overdoses, then quality and quantity of morphine were determined in insects such as Chrysomya albiceps (as the first wave of insect succession on human cadavers) fed on carcass.
Results: Quantitative assessment at larvae showed that morphine was detected in all larvae (feeding and post feeding stage) fed on tissues from carcasses administered morphine, except for post-feeding larvae from R1 which received 12.5mg/ml dosage of morphine.
Conclusions: Necrophagous insects are an indicator on the scene of crime and a potential source of information about the antemortem situation. Detection of drug in insects which is actually a reflection of the cause of death is possible.
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2. Visser H (2016) The influence of Methylpheni-date Hydrochloride on the development of the forensically signif¬icant blow fly Chrysomya chloropyga (Diptera:Calliphoridae) in the Western Cape, South Africa. [MPhil disserta¬tion]. Faculty of Health Sciences, Divi¬sion of Forensic Medicine and Tox¬icology,University of cape town, South Africa.
3. Goff ML, Lord WD (1994) Entomotoxicology: A New Area for Forensic In-vestigation. Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 15(1): 51–17.
4. Introna Jr F, Lo DC, Caplan Y, Smialek J (1988) Opiate analysis in cadaveric blow¬fly larvae as an indicator of narcotic in
toxication. Acta Med Leg Soc .38(1): 217.
5. Magni PA, Pazzi M, Vincenti M, Alladio E, Brandimarte M, Dadour IR (2016) Development and validation of a GC–MS method for nicotine detection in Calli-phora vomitoria (L.) (Diptera: Calli-phoridae). Forensic Sci Int. 261: 53–60.
6. Monthei DR (2009) Entomotoxicological and thermal factors affecting the de¬vel¬opment of forensically important flies. [Ph.D dissertation]. Faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univer-sity, USA.
7. Singh D, Heer BK, Wadhawan B (2016) Detection of ketamine hydrochloride and its effect on the development of im¬ma¬ture stages of a forensically important blow fly Chrysomya megacephala (Fab¬ricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae). J Ento¬mol Zool Stud. 4: 91–97.
8. Tabor KL, Fell RD, Brewster CC, Pelzer K, Behonick GS (2005) Effects of ante¬mortem ingestion of ethanol on insect successional patterns and development of Phormia regina (Diptera: Calliphor¬idae). J Med Entomol. 42(3): 481–489.
9. Tracqui A, Keyser-Tracqui C, Kintz P, Ludes B (2004) Entomotoxicology for the forensic toxicologist: much ado about nothing? Int J Legal Med. 118(4): 194–196.
10. Bourel B, Tournel G, Hédouin V, Goff ML, Gosset D (2001) Determination of drug levels in two species of necro-phagous Coleoptera reared on sub-strates containing morphine. J Forensic Sci. 46(3): 600–603.
11. Carvalho LM, Linhares AcX, Trigo JR (2001) Determination of drug levels and the effect of diazepam on the growth of necrophagous flies of forensic im¬portance in southeastern Brazil. Forensic Sci Int. 120(1): 140–144.
12. Goff ML, Omori AI, Goodbrod JR (1989) Effect of cocaine in tissues on the de-velopment rate of Boettcherisca pere-grina (Diptera: Sarcophagidae). J Med Entomol. 26(2): 91–93.
13. Gosselin M, Ramirez Fernandez Mdel M, Wille SM, Samyn N, De Boeck G, Bourel B (2010) Quantification of meth¬adone and its metabolite 2-ethylidene-1, 5-dimethyl-3, 3-diphenylpyrrolidine in third instar larvae of Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae) using liquid chro-matography-tandem mass spectrometry. J Anal Toxicol. 34(7): 374–380.
14. Rashid RA, Osman K, Ismail MI, Zuha RM, Hassan RA (2008) Determination of malathion levels and the effect of malathion on the growth of Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) in malathion-exposed rat carcass. Trop Biomed. 25 (3): 184–190.
15. Wallace D (2017) Evolution of forensic entomotoxicology. Toxicol Forensic Med Open J. SE(1): Se1-Se4
16. Wolff M, Builes A, Zapata G, Morales G, Benecke M (2004) Detection of Par¬athion (O, O-diethyl O-(4-nitrophenyl) phosphorothioate) by HPLC in insects of forensic importance in Medellín, Co¬lombia. Anil Aggrawal's Internet J Fo¬rensic Med Toxicol. 5: 6–11.
17. Miller M, Lord W, Goff M, Donnelly B, McDonough E, Alexis J (1994) Iso-lation of amitriptyline and nortriptyline from fly puparia (Phoridae) and beetle exuviae (Dermestidae) associated with mummified human remains. J Forensic Sci. 39(5): 1305–1313.
18. Ortiz AJ, Cortez V, Azzouz A, Verdú JR (2017) Isolation and determination of ivermectin in post-mortem and in vivo tissues of dung beetles using a con¬tin¬uous solid phase extraction method fol¬lowed by LC-ESI+-MS/MS. PloS one. 12(2): e0172202.
19. Ruzilawati AB, Miran H (2015) Vali-dat¬ed high performance liquid chromatog-raphy method for analysis of metham¬pheta-mine in human urine using liquid-liquid ex¬traction, Asian. Asian J Pharm Clin Res. 8(2): 199–201.
20. Szkutnik-Fiedler D, Grześkowiak E, Gaca M, Borowicz M (2011) HPLC-UV de¬termination of morphine in human plas¬ma and its application to the clinical study. Acta Pol Pharm. 68(4): 473–479.
21. Zhang X, Chen M, Cao G, Hu G (2013) Determination of morphine and codeine in human urine by gas chromatog¬raphy-mass spectrometry. J Anal Meth¬ods Chem. 15:6–10
22. Bourel B, Hédouin V, Martin-Bouyer L, Bécart A, Tournel G, Deveaux M (1999) Effects of morphine in decomposing bodies on the development of Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae). J Fo-rensic Sci. 44(2): 354–358.
23. Hédouin V, Bourel B, Martin-Bouyer L, Bécart A, Tournel G, Deveaux M (1999) Morphine perfused rabbits: a tool for experiments in forensic entomotox¬i-col¬ogy. J Forensic Sci. 44(2): 347–350.
24. Maskell PD, Albeishy M, De Paoli G, Wilson NE, Seetohul LN (2016) Post-mortem redistribution of the heroin me¬tabolites morphine and morphine-3-glu¬curonide in rabbits over 24h. Int J Le¬gal Med. 30(2): 519–531.
25. Shaalan EA, El‐Moaty ZA, Abdelsalam S, Anderson GS (2017) A Preliminary Study of Insect Succession in Al‐Ahsaa Oasis, in the Eastern Region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. J Forensic Sci. 62(1): 239243.
26. Gosselin M, Wille SM, Fernandez Mdel M, Di Fazio V, Samyn N, De Boeck G (2011) Entomotoxicology, experi¬mental set-up and interpretation for forensic tox¬icologists. Forensic Sci Int. 208(1): 1–9.
27. Sadler D, Richardson J, Haigh S, Bruce G, Pounder D (1997) Amitriptyline ac-cumulation and elimination in Calli¬phora vicina larvae. Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 18(4): 397–403.
28. Wilson Z, Hubbard S, Pounder DJ (1993) Drug analysis in fly larvae. Am J Fo-rensic Med Pathol. 14(2): 118–120.
29. Goff ML, Brown WA, Hewadikaram K, Omori A (1991) Effect of heroin in de-composing tissues on the development rate of Boettcherisca peregrina (Dip-tera: Sarcophagidae) and implications of this effect on estimation of postmor¬tem intervals using arthropod develop¬ment pat¬terns. J Forensic Sci. 36(2): 537–542.
30. Goff ML, Brown WA, Omori A (1992) Preliminary observations of the effect of methamphetamine in decomposing tissues on the development rate of Parasarcophaga ruficornis (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) and implications of this effect on the estimations of postmortem inter¬vals. J Forensic Sci. 37(3): 867–872.
31. Foltz RL, Fentiman Jr A, Foltz RB (1980) GC/MS assays for abused drugs in body fluids. NIDA Res Monogr. 32: 1–198.
32. Definis-Gojanović M, Sutlović D, Britvić D, Kokan B (2007) Drug analysis in necrophagous flies and human tissues. Arch Ind Hyg Toxicol. 58(3): 313–316.
2. Visser H (2016) The influence of Methylpheni-date Hydrochloride on the development of the forensically signif¬icant blow fly Chrysomya chloropyga (Diptera:Calliphoridae) in the Western Cape, South Africa. [MPhil disserta¬tion]. Faculty of Health Sciences, Divi¬sion of Forensic Medicine and Tox¬icology,University of cape town, South Africa.
3. Goff ML, Lord WD (1994) Entomotoxicology: A New Area for Forensic In-vestigation. Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 15(1): 51–17.
4. Introna Jr F, Lo DC, Caplan Y, Smialek J (1988) Opiate analysis in cadaveric blow¬fly larvae as an indicator of narcotic in
toxication. Acta Med Leg Soc .38(1): 217.
5. Magni PA, Pazzi M, Vincenti M, Alladio E, Brandimarte M, Dadour IR (2016) Development and validation of a GC–MS method for nicotine detection in Calli-phora vomitoria (L.) (Diptera: Calli-phoridae). Forensic Sci Int. 261: 53–60.
6. Monthei DR (2009) Entomotoxicological and thermal factors affecting the de¬vel¬opment of forensically important flies. [Ph.D dissertation]. Faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univer-sity, USA.
7. Singh D, Heer BK, Wadhawan B (2016) Detection of ketamine hydrochloride and its effect on the development of im¬ma¬ture stages of a forensically important blow fly Chrysomya megacephala (Fab¬ricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae). J Ento¬mol Zool Stud. 4: 91–97.
8. Tabor KL, Fell RD, Brewster CC, Pelzer K, Behonick GS (2005) Effects of ante¬mortem ingestion of ethanol on insect successional patterns and development of Phormia regina (Diptera: Calliphor¬idae). J Med Entomol. 42(3): 481–489.
9. Tracqui A, Keyser-Tracqui C, Kintz P, Ludes B (2004) Entomotoxicology for the forensic toxicologist: much ado about nothing? Int J Legal Med. 118(4): 194–196.
10. Bourel B, Tournel G, Hédouin V, Goff ML, Gosset D (2001) Determination of drug levels in two species of necro-phagous Coleoptera reared on sub-strates containing morphine. J Forensic Sci. 46(3): 600–603.
11. Carvalho LM, Linhares AcX, Trigo JR (2001) Determination of drug levels and the effect of diazepam on the growth of necrophagous flies of forensic im¬portance in southeastern Brazil. Forensic Sci Int. 120(1): 140–144.
12. Goff ML, Omori AI, Goodbrod JR (1989) Effect of cocaine in tissues on the de-velopment rate of Boettcherisca pere-grina (Diptera: Sarcophagidae). J Med Entomol. 26(2): 91–93.
13. Gosselin M, Ramirez Fernandez Mdel M, Wille SM, Samyn N, De Boeck G, Bourel B (2010) Quantification of meth¬adone and its metabolite 2-ethylidene-1, 5-dimethyl-3, 3-diphenylpyrrolidine in third instar larvae of Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae) using liquid chro-matography-tandem mass spectrometry. J Anal Toxicol. 34(7): 374–380.
14. Rashid RA, Osman K, Ismail MI, Zuha RM, Hassan RA (2008) Determination of malathion levels and the effect of malathion on the growth of Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) in malathion-exposed rat carcass. Trop Biomed. 25 (3): 184–190.
15. Wallace D (2017) Evolution of forensic entomotoxicology. Toxicol Forensic Med Open J. SE(1): Se1-Se4
16. Wolff M, Builes A, Zapata G, Morales G, Benecke M (2004) Detection of Par¬athion (O, O-diethyl O-(4-nitrophenyl) phosphorothioate) by HPLC in insects of forensic importance in Medellín, Co¬lombia. Anil Aggrawal's Internet J Fo¬rensic Med Toxicol. 5: 6–11.
17. Miller M, Lord W, Goff M, Donnelly B, McDonough E, Alexis J (1994) Iso-lation of amitriptyline and nortriptyline from fly puparia (Phoridae) and beetle exuviae (Dermestidae) associated with mummified human remains. J Forensic Sci. 39(5): 1305–1313.
18. Ortiz AJ, Cortez V, Azzouz A, Verdú JR (2017) Isolation and determination of ivermectin in post-mortem and in vivo tissues of dung beetles using a con¬tin¬uous solid phase extraction method fol¬lowed by LC-ESI+-MS/MS. PloS one. 12(2): e0172202.
19. Ruzilawati AB, Miran H (2015) Vali-dat¬ed high performance liquid chromatog-raphy method for analysis of metham¬pheta-mine in human urine using liquid-liquid ex¬traction, Asian. Asian J Pharm Clin Res. 8(2): 199–201.
20. Szkutnik-Fiedler D, Grześkowiak E, Gaca M, Borowicz M (2011) HPLC-UV de¬termination of morphine in human plas¬ma and its application to the clinical study. Acta Pol Pharm. 68(4): 473–479.
21. Zhang X, Chen M, Cao G, Hu G (2013) Determination of morphine and codeine in human urine by gas chromatog¬raphy-mass spectrometry. J Anal Meth¬ods Chem. 15:6–10
22. Bourel B, Hédouin V, Martin-Bouyer L, Bécart A, Tournel G, Deveaux M (1999) Effects of morphine in decomposing bodies on the development of Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae). J Fo-rensic Sci. 44(2): 354–358.
23. Hédouin V, Bourel B, Martin-Bouyer L, Bécart A, Tournel G, Deveaux M (1999) Morphine perfused rabbits: a tool for experiments in forensic entomotox¬i-col¬ogy. J Forensic Sci. 44(2): 347–350.
24. Maskell PD, Albeishy M, De Paoli G, Wilson NE, Seetohul LN (2016) Post-mortem redistribution of the heroin me¬tabolites morphine and morphine-3-glu¬curonide in rabbits over 24h. Int J Le¬gal Med. 30(2): 519–531.
25. Shaalan EA, El‐Moaty ZA, Abdelsalam S, Anderson GS (2017) A Preliminary Study of Insect Succession in Al‐Ahsaa Oasis, in the Eastern Region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. J Forensic Sci. 62(1): 239243.
26. Gosselin M, Wille SM, Fernandez Mdel M, Di Fazio V, Samyn N, De Boeck G (2011) Entomotoxicology, experi¬mental set-up and interpretation for forensic tox¬icologists. Forensic Sci Int. 208(1): 1–9.
27. Sadler D, Richardson J, Haigh S, Bruce G, Pounder D (1997) Amitriptyline ac-cumulation and elimination in Calli¬phora vicina larvae. Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 18(4): 397–403.
28. Wilson Z, Hubbard S, Pounder DJ (1993) Drug analysis in fly larvae. Am J Fo-rensic Med Pathol. 14(2): 118–120.
29. Goff ML, Brown WA, Hewadikaram K, Omori A (1991) Effect of heroin in de-composing tissues on the development rate of Boettcherisca peregrina (Dip-tera: Sarcophagidae) and implications of this effect on estimation of postmor¬tem intervals using arthropod develop¬ment pat¬terns. J Forensic Sci. 36(2): 537–542.
30. Goff ML, Brown WA, Omori A (1992) Preliminary observations of the effect of methamphetamine in decomposing tissues on the development rate of Parasarcophaga ruficornis (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) and implications of this effect on the estimations of postmortem inter¬vals. J Forensic Sci. 37(3): 867–872.
31. Foltz RL, Fentiman Jr A, Foltz RB (1980) GC/MS assays for abused drugs in body fluids. NIDA Res Monogr. 32: 1–198.
32. Definis-Gojanović M, Sutlović D, Britvić D, Kokan B (2007) Drug analysis in necrophagous flies and human tissues. Arch Ind Hyg Toxicol. 58(3): 313–316.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 12 No 3 (2018) | |
| Section | Original Article | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/jad.v12i3.74 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Morphine Postmortem Necrophagous Rabbit Larvae | ||
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How to Cite
1.
Salimi M, Rassi Y, Chatrabgoun O, Kamali A, Oshaghi MA, Shiri-Ghaleh V, Moradi M, Rafizadeh S, Akbarzadeh K, Parkhideh SZ. Toxicological Analysis of Insects on the Corpse: a Valuable Source of Information in Forensic Investigations. J Arthropod Borne Dis. 2018;12(3):219-231.
