Evaluation of Fatty Acids as Biochemical Markers for Source Identification of Indian Opium

Abstract

This method describes an attempt to identify the source of licit Indian opium based on the fatty acid profile. The analysis was based on gas chromatography (GC) with flame ionization (FID) and mass spectrometric detectors (MS). A total of 124 Indian opium samples were collected and fingerprinted for the presence of various fatty acids. Qualitative analysis of fatty acids indicated the acids such as behenic, stearic and lignoceric were significant biochemical markers, making it a useful method to identify the source of opium for forensic purposes.