Investigation of alkaloid’s in hemlock by thin layer chromatography for forensic significance

Medicinal plants are a two-edged sword that might be used as a medicine for several diseases as well as deadly poisonous substances to commit murder or suicide when administered in high doses. In order to provide the self-defense against threats, a number of toxins from the medicinal plants are generated which are the produced secondary metabolites such as ‘alkaloids’, glycosides, ‘saponins’, ‘resinoids’. Importantly, plants having toxic properties may be used as biological weapons and have their significant application in ‘Forensic Botany, which is composed of the scientific use of plant materials to help to solve crimes and to gain information regarding possible crimes. This paper reports the investigation of phytochemicals of ‘Hemlock’ leaves and flowers using ‘Thin layer chromatography’ (TLC). A ‘Soxhlet’ extractor was used to extract the hemlock leaves and flowers for TLC. Using a solvent system consisting of Glacial acetic acid: Acetone in a ratio of 10:90 and Ethyl acetate: Methanol: Water in a ratio of 50:10:40, a qualitative analysis of the extracts of Hemlock leaves and flowers was carried out via TLC. The TLC chromatogram was obtained displaying the Rf values of the generated content in the crude leaves and crude flowers. Interestingly, TLC based finding substantiates the existence of the lethal alkaloid ‘Coniine’ in both Hemlock leaves and flowers collected for this research.