THE CHARACTERIZATION OF POLLEN GRAINS IN FORENSIC SCIENCE USING A SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE

Abstract

In many important criminal cases occurred Thailand or abroad, physical evidences such as gun, knife, other equipment, or biological evidence that can be used to detect DNA including blood, saliva, and semen may be typically found at crime scene. The knowledge of botany is also applied in forensic science to solve crimes and link to the criminal. For example, evidence could be determined from pollen or plant debris attached to the body of a victim. Hence, the botany applied to forensic science could lead to a reliable technique for case solving. The objectives of this research are to study pollen grain morphology and use the data retrieved from crime scene locations and to study the morphology of the pollen grains using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The flowering plant samples of 30 species were collected, prepared and then analyzed by SEM. The morphology of the pollen was recorded and analyzed for size, shape and exine. The results showed that the pollen varied in size from very small (<10µm) to small (10 - 25µm), medium (25 - 50µm) and large (25 - 50µm). For the shape of pollen grains, there were four types; sub-elliptic, elliptic, elliptic-circular and circular. A total of eight exine types were also observed. The plants of the same species but different sub-species will have different pollen grain morphology. For example, the pollen grains of Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L.). (Pride of Barbados) and Delonix regia (Hook.) Raf. (Royal Poinciana) totally differ in size, shape, and exine.