ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Page Count: 6

Can Microorganisms Produce Alcohol in Body Cavities of a Living Person?: A Case Report
Moriya, F
Forensic Toxicologist and Professor, Okayama University Medical School,

Ishizu, H
Forensic Toxicologist and Professor, Okayama University Medical School,

(Received 17 September 1993; accepted 16 November 1993)

Abstract

Unusual endogenous ethanol production in intraabdominal bloody fluid of an individual who was stabbed in the abdomen and who developed peritonitis after a peritoneotomy is discussed. In the intraabdominal bloody fluid, 2.45 mg/g ethanol and 0.079 mg/g n-propanol were detected. The level of ethanol in the heart blood was about 1 mg/g. The level of n-propanol indicates that a large quantity of ethanol was produced endogenously in the intraabdominal bloody fluid. In an animal experiment in which rats were injected with 20 mL of 10% glucose mixed 5:1 with a presumed volume of rat blood into the abdominal cavity after injury of the small intestine to allow enterobacteria to spread into the cavity, a significant quantity of ethanol was produced in the administered fluid while the animals were alive. The antemortem ethanol production in the intraabdominal bloody fluid of the victim might have been caused by the microorganisms responsible for the peritonitis after the operation.

Keywords:
toxicology, ethyl alcohol, n-propyl alcohol, ethanol determination in corpses, endogenous production of ethanol

Paper ID: JFS13669J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS13669J
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