A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
The utilization of stable isotope analysis for the estimation of the geographic origins of unidentified cadavers
Authors: McLean S, Ikegaya H, Saukko P, Zheng H, Itoh K, Fushiki S
Publisher: Elsevier Ireland Ltd
Publication year: 2014
Journal: Forensic Science International
Journal name in source: Forensic Science International
Volume: 245
First page : 45
Last page: 50
Number of pages: 6
ISSN: 1872-6283
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.10.011
The number of unidentified cadavers is increasing worldwide and the effective methods which reveal their geographic origin are not well known. This study reports on the utilization of δO, δC, δH and δN ratios gained through stable isotope analysis of urine samples collected from eight locations: Chiba, Japan; Fuzhou, China; and Denpasar, Indonesia in our pilot study with data from healthy volunteers from five further locations from healthy volunteers: Melbourne and Perth, Australia; Qingdao, China; Turku, Finland and Oklahoma, USA. This study posits that the utilization of δO and δH is more feasible than δC and δN stable isotope ratios in differentiating or estimating the origin of human samples. Secondly, this study demonstrated that the δO and δH stable isotope ratios of urine samples from eight locations differed significantly.