Miller Coyle Heather, Lee Cheng-Lung, Lin Wen-Yu, Lee Henry C, Palmbach Timothy M
Forensic Science Program, University of New Haven, 300 Boston Post Road, West Haven, CT, USA.
Croat Med J. 2005 Aug;46(4):606-12.
Forensic botany is still an under-utilized resource in forensic casework, although it has been used on occasion. It is an area of specialty science that could include traditional botanical classification of species, DNA, or materials evidence (trace and transfer evidence), crime mapping or geo-sourcing, all dependent on the specific case application under consideration. Critical to the evaluation of plant evidence is careful collection, documentation, and preservation for later scientific analysis. This article reviews proper procedures and recent cases where botanical evidence played a role in establishing either manner or time of death. Plant evidence can be useful for determining if a death was due to an accident, suicide, or homicide, or what time of year burial may have taken place. In addition, plant evidence can be used to determine if a crime scene is a primary or secondary scene and to locate missing bodies.
法医植物学在法医案件工作中仍是一种未得到充分利用的资源，尽管它偶尔会被使用。它是一门专业科学领域，可能包括物种的传统植物分类、DNA或物质证据（微量和转移证据）、犯罪绘图或地理溯源，所有这些都取决于所考虑的具体案件应用。对植物证据进行评估的关键在于仔细收集、记录和保存，以便日后进行科学分析。本文回顾了正确的程序以及植物证据在确定死亡方式或时间方面发挥作用的近期案例。植物证据可用于确定死亡是意外、自杀还是他杀，或者埋葬可能发生在一年中的什么时间。此外，植物证据可用于确定犯罪现场是第一现场还是第二现场，并找到失踪尸体。
