Non disponibileForensic 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