Estimation of Postmortem Production and Loss of Ethanol in Brain and Liver Tissues with Respect to Their Duration of Storage at Room Temperature

With increasing incidences of alcohol consumption and its significant roles in crimes, this study has been carried out to estimate the amount of alcohol present in brain & liver tissues collected from human corpses and stored in our environmental conditions for different durations to find out its significance in interpretation of ante mortem concentration at the moment of death in view of the postmortem production and loss of ethanol from the tissues. Brain, being the main site of action and liver, being the site of its metabolism were the tissues chosen for this study. Such study has already been conducted on blood by the author. There was production of ethanol in brain & liver tissue samples collected after death and stored at room temperature. Ethanol production ranged upto 127.5 mgs% in brain & liver up to 140 mgs% which is a significant quantity. Postmortem production of ethanol occurred mostly within 7 days of death and in few cases even upto 14^th day.