Identification of saliva stains by determination of the specific activity of amylase

✍ Scribed by Hajime Tsutsumi; Koji Higashide; Yasushi Mizuno; Keiji Tamaki; Yoshinao Katsumata

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 469 KB
• Volume: 50
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0379-0738
• DOI: 10.1016/0379-0738(91)90130-b

✦ Synopsis

The specific activity (enzyme activity/protein concentration) of amylase was determined for the identification of saliva stains. The specific activity of amylase in saliva stains rapidly decreased during the first hour but, from 1 to 28 days, this decrease was much less when the stains were kept at room temperature. Stains of various human biological materials, breast milk, nasal secretion, meconium and vaginal secretion showed comparatively high amylase activity, but the saliva stains could be differentiated by their high specific activity of amylase, over 2 I.U./mg. When saliva stains were contaminated with blood or vaginal secretions at various ratios, the specific activity of amylase decreased with increase in the ratio of contaminant, especially when the contaminant was blood. However, the specific activity of amylase was still higher than 2 I.U./mg even after one fifth volume of blood was added or after five volumes of the extract of the stains of vaginal secretions were added.