JIST

Abstract

Rats are among the most destructive of pests, ravaging crops and prepared food material. A variety of rodenti-cides are available in India for killing these pests, and among them, the most common compounds include zinc phosphide and bromadiolone.  While there is little doubt that they are effective rodenticides, the flip side is that they are increasingly being employed for committing sui-cide, and even homicide. Thin layer chromatography, an inexpensive and relatively simple method for detecting various poisons has rarely been employed in detecting bromadiolone in biological materials. An attempt has therefore been made in this study to identify bromadiolone in biological samples. This can be employed in clinical and forensic cases as a preliminary test, which if neces-sary can subsequently be confirmed with more sophisti-cated analyses.