ADVANCEMENTS IN FORENSIC BOTANY: EMERGING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR PLANT-BASED CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
Main Article Content
Keywords
Forensic botany, DNA barcoding, palynology, phytochemical profiling, forensic science
Abstract
Crime scene reconstruction, suspect mobility, and environmental crime detection are all areas that have benefited greatly from the insights provided by forensic botany, an interdisciplinary discipline that applies plant science to criminal investigations. Pollen, seeds, leaves, and phytochemical signatures are all examples of plant-based evidence that may be very particular and resilient, making them very useful in connecting crime scenes, victims, and suspects. The reliability and accuracy of botanical evidence has been greatly improved by recent advances in forensic methods, including DNA barcoding, palynology, phytochemical profiling, stable isotope analysis, and AI-driven identification. Thanks to these advancements, police are now better equipped to track down criminal operations, such as murder investigations and wildlife trafficking. The broad use of forensic botany is impeded by obstacles including the absence of defined standards and exhaustive plant reference databases. This study delves into the latest developments in forensic botany, how they might be used in criminal investigations, and what the future holds for this dynamic field. Forensic botany is essential to current forensic science, and it is about to undergo a revolution thanks to the combination of geospatial technology, artificial intelligence, and molecular biology.
References
2. Aquila, I., Gratteri, S., Sacco, M. A., & Ricci, P. (2018). The Role of Forensic Botany in Solving a Case: Scientific Evidence on the Falsification of a Crime Scene. Journal of Forensic Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.13639
3. Bates, D., Anderson, G., & Lee, R. (1997). Forensic Botany: Trichome Evidence. Journal of Forensic Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1520/jfs14133j
4. Bec, A., Perga, M. E., Koussoroplis, A., Bardoux, G., Desvilettes, C., Bourdier, G., & Mariotti, A. (2011). Assessing the reliability of fatty acid-specific stable isotope analysis for trophic studies. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-210X.2011.00111.x
5. Coyle, H. M. (2009). Forensic Botany: Evidence and Analysis. Forensic Sci Rev.
6. Coyle, H. M., & Robertson, J. (2022). Forensic Botany. In Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences: Volume 1-4, Third Edition. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823677-2.00013-1
7. Das, S., Khatua, K., Rakshit, A., Carmona, A., Sarkar, A., Bakthavatsalam, S., Ortega, R., & Datta, A. (2019). Emerging chemical tools and techniques for tracking biological manganese. Dalton Transactions. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9dt00508k
8. Gomez-Beloz, A. (2006). Forensic Botany. Principles and Applications to Criminal Casework. Economic Botany. https://doi.org/10.1663/0013-0001(2006)60[192b:fbpaat]2.0.co;2
9. Kasprzyk, I. (2023). Forensic botany: who?, how?, where?, when? In Science and Justice. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2023.01.002
10. Königsson, L. K. (1971). Palynology, biological variation, and pollen analysis. Grana. https://doi.org/10.1080/00173137109430492
11. Kunchhal, H., & Kaur, I. (2023). Plant Forensics: Solving Crimes With Botany. Resonance. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-023-1691-4
12. Lee, C. L., Huang, Y. H., Hsu, I. C., & Lee, H. C. (2020). Evaluation of plant seed DNA and botanical evidence for potential forensic applications. Forensic Sciences Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/20961790.2019.1594599
13. Leena Pramod, K., Kishor Kumar, B., & Ahmad, M. N. (2021). Role of Forensic Botany in Crime Scene Investigation ⁃A literature review. In Journal of Forensic Medicine Science and Law.
14. Margiotta, G., Bacaro, G., Carnevali, E., Severini, S., Bacci, M., & Gabbrielli, M. (2015). Forensic botany as a useful tool in the crime scene: Report of a case. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2015.05.003
15. Natarajan, P. M., Mathew, A., Desai, V. B., Thomas, S., Abuhijleh, E., & Srinivasan, S. (2020). Forensic odontology-A review. In Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology. https://doi.org/10.37506/ijfmt.v14i4.12290
16. Olivia, N. U., Goodness, U. C., & Obinna, O. M. (2021). Phytochemical profiling and GC-MS analysis of aqueous methanol fraction of Hibiscus asper leaves. Future Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43094-021-00208-4
17. Paranaiba, R. T. F., Carvalho, C. B. V., Freitas, J. M., Fassio, L. H., Botelho, É. D., Neves, D. B. J., Silva, R. C., Aguiar, S. M., & Naaum, A. (2019). Forensic botany and forensic chemistry working together: Application of plant DNA barcoding as a complement to forensic chemistry - A case study in Brazil. Genome. https://doi.org/10.1139/gen-2018-0066
18. Patel, M. K., Pandey, S., Kumar, M., Haque, M. I., Pal, S., & Yadav, N. S. (2021). Plants metabolome study: Emerging tools and techniques. Plants. https://doi.org/10.3390/ plants10112409
19. Spencer, M. A. (2021). Forensic botany: time to embrace natural history collections, large scale environmental data and environmental DNA. Emerging Topics in Life Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1042/ETLS20200329
20. Zhang, Z. L., Liang, W. B., Sun, H. B., Yang, X., Ma, L. Y., & Zheng, Z. X. (2021). Forensic Application of Plant Evidence. In Journal of Forensic Medicine. https://doi.org/10.12116/ j.issn.1004-5619.2019.490708
21. J. Ward, R. Peakall, S.R. Gilmore, J. Robertson (2005) Forensic Science International, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.07.015
22. David L. Hawksworth, Patricia E.J. Wiltshire (2011) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint. 2010.06.012) Forensic Science International
Article Sidebar
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
All articles published in JPTCP are licensed under Copyright Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Ekta Sharma
Assistant professor, Department of Forensic Science, Starex university, Gurugram, Haryana, India
Priya Roka
Bachelor’s Student, Department of Forensic Science, Starex university, Gurugram, Haryana, India
Tannu Rawat
Bachelor’s Student, Department of Forensic Science, Starex university, Gurugram, Haryana, India