Homicidal Poisons-Past, Present and Future

Objective of the study is to find out how the poisoning methods have changed over a period of time. The history of various ancient civilizations has shown poison and poisoning as a part of their culture, either directly or indirectly. Archeological evidences from Greece, Persia, Egypt, China and India suggest that they had professionals for poisoning. As the years went on man's enthusiasm to explore new things ended up in more potent poisons so that the victims had no second chance to breath. As the scientist discovered new analytical procedures to identify poisons, in parallel the criminals also were in the search of new poisons and its carrier vehicle. Knowledge of poison and poisoning has become more rampant because of the internet and the media.

Today bioterrorism is the most sought after weapon as the biological agents are relatively easy and inexpensive to obtain, extremely difficult to detect, can be easily spread, and can cause extensive fear and panic beyond the actual physical damage. Another factor is that radioactive substances may be stolen or misused for homicidal purpose which has happened in the case of former Russian KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko ^{(1) (2).} In future people will find more elaborate ways to commit crimes as with the advancement of nanotechnology, “Nano-Poisons” have the ability to target a specific body function, and provide a whole new menu of poison options.