Abstract

CASTELLO PONCE, A.; ALVAREZ SEGUI, M.; MIQUEL FEUCHT, M.  and  VERDU PASCUAL, F.A.. Development of latent stains: effectiveness of luminol and evaluation of its effect on DNA analysis. Cuad. med. forense [online]. 2002, n.28, pp.33-36. ISSN 1988-611X.

Frequently, clothes stained with blood during a violent act are washed to try to eliminate the traces. The analysis of DNA by means of PCR has provided criminalistics with the possibility of studying minimum traces which would be impossible to analyse by other methods. Detection of the stain is extremely difficult in this type of sample. The present paper examines the sensitivity of luminol for finding invisible blood stains, and an attempt is made to extract and amplify DNA from them. The results show that luminol is very efficient for the detection of invisible stains. In the experimental conditions used in this work, the reagent does not interfere in the posterior extraction and amplification of DNA.

Keywords : criminalistics; luminol; latent bloodstains; DNA.

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