![]() ![]() Pig remains are often used as human analogues ( Table 1) because of their similarity in hair coverage, weight, fat to muscle ratio, gut fauna and biochemistry. ![]() The past few years, the research to characterize this ‘smell of death’ has increased and a wide variety of compounds has already been identified: alkanes, alcohols, acids, esters, ketones, aldehydes, cyclic hydrocarbons, aromatic, sulphur- and nitrogen-containing compounds. These markers would allow a more efficiently training of cadaver dogs or portable detection devices could be developed.ĭuring the decomposition of human and animal remains, a wide spectrum of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is emitted in the environment. Further research in the field with full bodies has to corroborate these results and search for one or more human specific markers. Furthermore, it was possible to separate the pig remains from human remains based on 5 esters (3-methylbutyl pentanoate, 3-methylbutyl 3-methylbutyrate, 3-methylbutyl 2-methylbutyrate, butyl pentanoate and propyl hexanoate). We found a combination of 8 compounds (ethyl propionate, propyl propionate, propyl butyrate, ethyl pentanoate, pyridine, diethyl disulfide, methyl(methylthio)ethyl disulfide and 3-methylthio-1-propanol) that led to the distinction of human and pig remains from other animal remains. ![]() Among them a human specific marker was sought using principle component analysis. In this study, a validated method using a thermal desorber combined with a gas chromatograph coupled to mass spectrometry was used to identify the volatile organic compounds released during decomposition of 6 human and 26 animal remains in a laboratory environment during a period of 6 months. ![]()
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