Alcohol content in country made liquors: forensic consideration

Fifty nine country made liquor samples were collected at random from National capital territory of Delhi with the help of police and from the locally available country-made liquor shops and were analyzed in Gas liquid chromatography for ethanol content, in the laboratory of Department of Forensic Medicine &Toxicology, A.I.I.M.S, New Delhi. The mean alcohol content was 32.88%V/V. The alcohol content varied from 6.70 to 96.61% V/V. In 25 of the samples, the results of the GLC analysis values were higher and in 34 cases, were lower than those written on the label. In some cases significant difference observed between the concentration of alcohol written on the label, and the measured alcohol which is critical factor in Widmark or volume-of-distribution-type calculations used to estimate blood or breath alcohol concentration. Hence caution should be excised by a toxicologist while performing such type of calculations.