Evergreen Conventional and Modern Microscopic Methods for Solving Various Cases of Forensic Botany by Morphological and Histological Study

Introduction: The study concerning forensic evidences commences from the physical examination. Microscopic examination serves a good preliminary technique and provides a relatively quick and non-destructive means of obtaining qualitative information without much sample preparation. Various plants or plant materials such as pollens at the crime scene or a rare plant type present near a murder victim can be helpful in connecting suspect to a victim or scene. For examination of such evidences, the initial step is the identification of collected botanical evidences. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) produces images that rely on secondary electrons image and is concerned primarily with the observation of surface topography. SEM images at all direction (X-Y-Z rotation) giving a three dimensional view of the sample under study. Methods: For morphological and histological examination, compound microscope and SEM has been used. Three plant specimens have been taken i.e. Cannabis sativa, Ricinus communis and Papaver somniferum. For compound microscopic examination, sample has been stained with saffranin dye and for SEM examination; sample surface has been coated with gold-palladium layer to make it conductive. Results: The morphological and histological examination by compound microscope and SEM revealed many characteristic features like ellipsoidal pollens in Ricinus, cystolythic trichomes in Cannabis, large oval stomata in poppy, etc. Conclusion: The microscopic examination of botanical evidences by such sophisticated technique like SEM holds a lot of scope in forensic investigations with minimal evidence destruction and maximum details can be obtained in a preliminary examination only without using other complicated techniques.