Applications of capillary electrophoresis and high performance liquid chromatography in forensic analysis

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Forensic science include all the applications of science which can be used to support at any level the enforcement of the law. Moreover, in many countries the term forensic science also includes the scientific knowledge on the basis of which new laws and rules are drafted. Forensic analysis is a rapidly expanding field of analytical research as witnessed by the numerous publications and specific scientific reviews present in the Pubmed database, which at present includes as many as 12341 titles. It is worth noting however, that the majority of works concerning forensic analysis are related to chromatographic techniques (GC and HPLC) which can provide fast and easily comparable results, due to widespread standardized procedures. So far, little space has been given to electrophoresis. However, the low consumption of sample and reagents, the ability to separate both macromolecules and ions (both inorganic and organic) and the ruggedness of the instrumentation, have contributed to make the capillary electrophoresis (CE), known also as high-performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE), a widely appreciated analytical technique with an extremely wild field of applications. In recent years, great attention has been paid to CE by leading forensic science laboratories at the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) and the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). Already in 1996 CE has been discussed as an example of application in US courts of new federal rules of evidence following the Daubert standard (Kuffner et al., 1996). In this perspective, to provide further confirmation of the reliability and applicability of this technique in forensic laboratories, this work is started and aimed in its first part. The second part, instead, was aimed at confirming HPLC as a valuable tool for screening and identification and for precise and sensitive quantification of analytes of forensic interest. This subject does not need wide introduction, as probably does CE, since chromatographic techniques nowadays are commonly used for screening, identification and quantification of drugs, poisons and their metabolites, in every forensic laboratory. The areas of analytical toxicology in which chromatographic techniques are mostly used include analysis of amphetamines, cocaine, hallucinogens, opioids, anesthetics, hypnotics, benzodiazepines, antidepressants, neuroleptics, antihistamines, sulfonylurea-type antidiabetics, beta-blockers, and other cardiac drugs. So, HPLC, after long time of reluctantly, is today widely accepted in forensic analysis laboratories, whereas CE is still seen with suspicion. The aim of the present work is to show how both these techniques may be useful in the hands of forensic scientists, and particularly forensic toxicologists.