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Decaying Mouse Volatiles Perceived by C alliphora vicina Rob.‐Desv.
Author(s) -
Paczkowski Sebastian,
Maibaum Friederike,
Paczkowska Marta,
Schütz Stefan
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2012.02245.x
Subject(s) - nonanal , dimethyl trisulfide , dimethyl disulfide , chemistry , heptanal , chromatography , mass spectrometry , gas chromatography , organic chemistry , aldehyde , sulfur , catalysis
Volatiles emitted by decaying human remains are in the focus of recent research. The identification of core volatiles in this field is of high importance, because cadaveric volatiles generally show high variation. In this study, the volatile profiles of five mice ( Myodes glareolus ) were sampled with charcoal filter tubes from their time of death until advanced decay. Eleven compounds were quantitated by means of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Electroantennographic experiments with female C alliphora vicina antennae led to the identification of dimethyl trisulfide, dimethyl disulfide, nonanal, hexan‐1‐ol, 1‐octen‐3‐ol, 3‐methylbutan‐1‐ol, and heptanal as electrophysiologically active compounds. When these were compared, dimethyl trisulfide (17 ng/μL) and dimethyl disulfide (11 ng/μL) were found to be emitted in higher concentrations. The roles of these compounds and nonanal as core volatiles for cadaver detection or postmortem time determination and their correlation to the stages of decay and the accumulated degree days are discussed.