Abstract

Plant toxins and poisons are deadly weapons which can kill humans without any bloodshed or violence. Tese deadly plant weapons in the form of extracts or plant tissue as whole are used by culprits for burglary, rape, and murder. Tey are also used in many suicide cases. In India, numerous murders, unsolved deaths and crimes have been related to the use of plant toxins. Criminals use them ofen as they are freely available at virtually no cost. Te plant extracts or plant tissues can ofen be found on the crime site or even on the murderer or suspect. In this project, research has been initiated to study the polymorphism of proteins found in the different poisonous plants in India and identify its forensic importance. Te profling or polymorphism has been done using SDS-Page technique, which shows a series of Protein Bands present in the plant tissue used. Tis data shows the typical proteins present in the different plants and the polymorphism of plant proteins can be used as a Protein Fingerprinting to identify the toxic plant used to cause harm, death, murder on a crime site. Te Protein fngerprint thus obtained can be used as an evidence to identify a particular death with the specifc symptoms as well as the toxic plant used in the crime.
 

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