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Rate of Decomposition of Abdomen Fatty Flesh of a Cadaver Buried in
Nami Series Soil of Bukit Khor
Chong Zan Yang
Supervisor: Dr. Siti Sofo binti Ismail
Bachelor of Science (Analytical and Environmental Chemistry)
School of Marine and Environmental Sciences
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu
The identification of a buried cadaver become challenging when the cadaver is badly
decomposed. Therefore, lipid can act as the bio-indicator to determine the
anthropogenic signal from the clandestine grave, subsequently, to determine the
postmortem interval. For this study, the rate of decomposition, pH, total organic
carbon (TOC), total lipid extracted (TLE), lipid concentration and phospholipid fatty
acids (PLFAs) was determined in each decomposition stages. A control laboratory
experiment was carried out to mimic a burial in shallow grave under tropical climate.
Modified Bligh Dyer method was utilized to extract the lipid from the soil. The lipid
was fractioned to obtain the PLFAs. GC-FID and GC-MS was used to determine the
concentration of lipid and types of PLFAs respectively. It is found that different
decomposition stage show different result of the rate of decomposition, pH, TOC, TLE,
concentration of the lipid and types of the PLFAs. Therefore, the soil lipids is a potential
forensic tool in located a clandestine grave, identify of the burial cadaver as well as
increase the accuracy to estimate the PMI.
1939 | UMT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH DAY 2018