2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The determination of vital reactions in charred bodies by GC-MS analysis of pyrolysis products in blood

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21590751
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Legal medicine
Research Institution	Fukuoka University
Principal Investigator	HARA Kenji 福岡大学, 医学部, 講師 (00090738)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	KUBO Shinichi 福岡大学, 医学部, 教授 (10205122) KASHIWAGI Masayuki 福岡大学, 医学部, 助教 (70301687)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2011
Keywords	焼死体 / 揮発性物質 / 高熱分解産物 / ガスクロマトグラフィー / 質量分析法 / 固相マイクロ抽出 / 生活反応
Research Abstract	We studied the analysis of pyrolysis products, or smoke components, from the blood of charred bodies. The analysis method included cryogenic-focusing gas chromatography-mass spectrometry following solid-phase micro-extraction of the volatile compounds from the headspace of a blood sample vial. Using this method, pyrolysis products such as phenylacetylene, styrene, indene, and naphthalene were detected from the blood of charred bodies that had accompanying heat wounds. The smoke components generated from a fire event being found in a charred body's blood could serve as evidence of the charred body having been alive at the start of the fire.