Effect of acid hydrolysis on the racemization method using amino acid racemization in teeth

Abstract

The racemization method using amino acid in teeth is utilized for the estimation of age of unknown corpses in forensic medicine. A series of experiments were carried out to evaluate analytical errors depending on hydrolysis conditions of coronal dentin from the third molars of human teeth. The results of these experiments revealed that aspartic acid was racemized with the acid concentration expressed by the following equation: D/L―0.0168+0.00103 × [HCI]. In addition, it was shown that the racemization rate of aspartic acid during the hydrolysis (at 100 °C, in 6 M HCI) was 0.00085 h-1. If the hydrolysis is conducted under the proposed conditions, the variations will have a negligible effect on the estimation of age. © 1988, The Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry. All rights reserved.