Characterization of country liquor for forensic purposes: A preliminary study

Alcohol is one of the most frequent toxic substances encountered in forensic laboratories. It forms a huge workload and therefore a quick and sensitive method to differentiate various types of liquor brand is necessary. In the present study, an attempt has been made to characterize the country made liquors in Punjab by using Head Space Gas Chromatography-Mass spectrometry (HS-GC-MS). Analyses were performed on five brands of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and four brands of country liquor. Many compounds of acid, ester, alcohol and other compounds were profiled. Benzyl alcohol and propylene glycol were found only in country made liquors and can be used to discriminate the country made liquors from IMFL brand.