Studies of adipocere using attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy.

Attenuated total reflectance (ATR) infrared spectroscopy has been used to characterize pig adipocere formation. The compositions of adipocere samples obtained by burial of pig adipose tissue in soil and in mock coffins were compared with that of the original adipose tissue using this technique. The ART spectra show that bands resulting from triglyceride and fatty acid C=O stretching are particularly useful for monitoring the changes in adipocere formation. The technique is able to be used to investigate how the burial environment affects the rate of adipocere formation and supports the results of earlier gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer and diffuse reflectance infrared studies. ATR spectroscopy has also been demonstrated to have the advantage of convenient sample preparation.

The identification of adipocere in grave soils.

Soil samples recovered from grave exhumations have been analysed in an attempt to identify and characterise adipocere contained in the samples. The soil samples were collected from different environments, including samples recovered from forensic grave sites. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was employed to identify adipocere and characterise the fatty acid composition. X-ray diffraction was used to characterise the soil environments.