A Study on Mineral Changes on the Weathering Human Hair after Burial using EDX

Won Kyu Kim; Jeong Lae Kim; Yong Seok Nam; Yun Teak Shim; Kyu-Sung Hwang

doi:10.7580/kjlm.2013.37.3.134

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Kim, Kim, Nam, Shim, and Hwang: A Study on Mineral Changes on the Weathering Human Hair after Burial using EDX

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Korean J Leg Med 2013;37(3):134-138.

Published online: 17 January 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7580/kjlm.2013.37.3.134

A Study on Mineral Changes on the Weathering Human Hair after Burial using EDX

Won Kyu Kim¹, Jeong Lae Kim², Yong Seok Nam³, Yun Teak Shim⁴, Kyu-Sung Hwang⁵

¹Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea

²Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Health Science, Eulji University, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi, Korea

³Department of Anatomy, Catholic Institute for Applied Anatomy, College of Medicine, Catholic University, Seoul, Korea

⁴Division of Forensic Medicine, National Forensic Service, Seoul, Korea

⁵Department of Funeral Science, College of Health Industry, Eulji University, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi, Korea

책임저자 : 황규성 (461-713) 경기도 성남시 수정구 양지동 212번지, 을지대학교 보건산업대학 장례 지도학과 전화 : +82-31-740-7224 FAX : +82-31-740-7364 E-mail : hks@eulji.ac.kr

Received 26 July 2013 Revised 12 August 2013 Accepted 23 August 2013

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study was undertaken to investigate mineral changes in weathered scalp hair after burial. EDX (energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) analysis was performed to measure the presence of minerals on the hair surface. Twelve scalp hairs, buried for 5-40 years, were chosen from deceased individuals buried in tombs in Soha-Ri, Kyonggi-Do, and other regions in Korea. Three normal hairs were used as the control group. EDX data showed that carbon, oxygen, and sulfur were detected in hair collected from all three burial grounds. In contrast, calcium was only detected in hair collected from tombs in Soha-ri. The amounts of calcium and sulfur were found to decrease with time for hair collected from tombs in Soha-ri. Similar results were observed with sodium for hair collected from other regions. These results show region specific mineral detection and a decrease in the concentration of minerals with time. Consequently, it is suggested that changes in minerals concentration in weathered hair could be used as basic data in the field of forensic medicine.

Keywords: Key Words, Weathering, Human scalp hair, Minerals, Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Forensic science

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Fig. 1.

SEM images of the surface and typical EDX analysis spectra are shown. The morphological changes in weathering hair shafts are investigated by SEM (control hair (a), ≤ 10 years after burial (b) and ≥30 years after burial (c)). EDX to analyze the material found in the surface of the control hair (d), ≤ 10 years after burial (e) and ≥30 years after burial (f). C (Carbon), O (Oxygen), S (Sulfur), Na (Sodium), Ca (Calcium), Al (Aluminium) and Fe (iron).

Table 1.

Classification of Hair Groups according to Duration of Burial

Burial period (years)	Area		Total	Percentage (%)
Burial period (years)	Soha-Ri	The others	Total	Percentage (%)
~10	1	1	2	15.4
11~20	2	2	4	30.8
21~30	2	1	3	23.0
31~40	1	2	3	23.0
Total	6	6	12	100

Table 2.

Data of EDX of Hair according to Duration of Burial

Area	Burial period (years)	Minerals (weight, %)
Area	Burial period (years)	C	O	S	Na	Ca	Mg	Fe	Al	P	K
Control	0	67.04	22.28	10.67
Soha-Ri	~10	58.87	28.95	9.56	2.05	1.26			0.42
	11~20	57.58	32.58	6.07	3.25	0.48				0.42
	21~30	54.38	32.67	6.85	2.27	0.93		0.94	2.28	1.26
	31~40	47.20	37.43	5.38	3.03	0.75	0.28	1.74	2.28
The others	~10	56.11	35.01	4.60	2.31	0.50			0.57	2.39
	11~20	60.21	30.85	6.94	1.47	0.54
	21~30	57.06	30.48	9.91	1.46				0.85
	31~40	52.46	31.54	7.52	1.04	0.41		1.15	4.61		1.54

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