Beside ethyl alcohol, the major active component of alcoholic beverages, almost all drinks contain volatile and non-volatile substances called congeners. They have various pharmacological effects and are present in different concentrations depending on beverage type and manufacturing methods.

Isobutanol, 1-propanol and 1-butanol have forensic significance when interpreting the blood alcohol content for the time of accident in correlation with defendant's declaration of ingested beverages.

DNA analysis is of particular interest for people who are unrecognizable, as a result of mutilation, fire or natural decomposition. There are two major requirements for DNA based identification:

• collection of representative, high quality tissue samples form the victim
• availability of reference samples

Guidelines and standard operating procedure for bone and tooth sample collection are presented.