#PAGE_PARAMS# #ADS_HEAD_SCRIPTS# #MICRODATA#

Alcohol congeners and their implications for medicolegal assessment of drunkeness


Authors: Ľubomír Straka;  Martin Janík;  František Novomeský;  Ivana Komáreková;  Jozef Krajčovič;  František Štuller
Authors‘ workplace: Ústav súdneho lekárstva a medicínskych expertíz JLF UK a UN v Martine
Published in: Soud Lék., 60, 2015, No. 1, p. 7-8
Category: Short Communication

Overview

Ethanol is the main psychoactive ingredient of alcoholic beverages. Together with water it makes their major part. The other substances contained in alcoholic beverages are called congeners. Some of them come from the original substance of the beverage, some come from the fermentation or mellowing process. Except giving the drink its specific taste, scent and colour, congeners also have a non-negligible direct influence on the alcohol consumer. Nowadays, methods of identification thousands of alcohol congeners are available. Analyzing chemical compounds of alcoholic beverages have only recently gained its importance, when it helped to estimate the basic chemical composition of the particular alcoholic beverages. Mentioned method is able to identify an exact type of alcoholic beverage which a man consumed before the blood sample necessary for the detection had been taken from him. It becomes irreplaceable especially in forensic assessment of the drunkenness in case an alcoholised person, responsible for any crime, excuses himself that he was drinking only after the act/crime (e.g. traffic accident) had happened. It can also help to aprove/disprove a testimony of an accused person that he/she was unaware of being given alcohol into his/her non-alcoholic beverage. Development of the new chemical methods analyzing alcohol congeners are of a great benefit for any forensic expert-medical doctor dealing with the field of forensic alcohology. However, he/she must be aware that interaction of alcohol congeners with the human organism follows different laws in comparison to alcohol/ethanol itself.

Keywords:
alcohol – congener – alcohol congener analysis – forensic alcohology


Sources

1. Garriott JC. Garriott´s Medicolegal Aspects of Alcohol (5th edn). Tucson: Lawyers and Judges Publishing Company; 2009: 10-23.

2. Rodda LN, Beyer J, Gerostamoulos D, Drummer OH. Alcohol congener analysis and the source of alcohol: a review. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 2013; 9: 194-207.

3. Dettmeyer RB, Verhoff MA, Schutz HF. Forensic Medicine, Fundamentals and Perspectives. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag; 2014: 482-484.

Labels
Anatomical pathology Forensic medical examiner Toxicology
Topics Journals
Login
Forgotten password

Enter the email address that you registered with. We will send you instructions on how to set a new password.

Login

Don‘t have an account?  Create new account

#ADS_BOTTOM_SCRIPTS#