Chapter 7 The Forensic Chemistry Of Alkaloids

This chapter presents the forensic chemistry of alkaloids. The plant alkaloids and their derivatives are described, purely synthetic substances being dealt with only if they illustrate some point of unusual forensic or analytical importance. It is suggested that before a compound can be identified it must be extracted and purified; in the case of a “general unknown” this poses a problem of considerable difficulty. It is emphasized that the choice of the extraction method to be used depends on a number of factors, the most important of these being the facilities available, the urgency of the problem, and the nature of the sample. Once the alkaloid has been isolated, it must be identified. The methods available are (1) the classic color and crystal tests, (2) chromatography, and (3) spectrophotometry. Under ideal conditions, the identification of an unknown alkaloid may be carried out by submitting the extracted material to gas chromatography, trapping the emerging fractions, and finding their IR, spectra, then programming the latter and feeding them to a computer.