Credit: Eduardo Merille, Florida International University
Researchers at Florida International University have discovered a method to identify a person's biological sex based on hand odor. By utilizing mass spectrometry and an innovative sampling technique, researchers were able to identify the biological sex of a hand with greater than 96% accuracy in laboratory trials.
In the study, published in Plos One, researchers point out that despite volatile organic compounds having long-standing use in the field of forensic science little work has been done to evaluate human VOCs in the laboratory. By using Headspace-Solid Phase Microextraction-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) to analyze the scent profile of human hand samples, the team was able to conduct statistical analysis to determine the sex with 96.67% accuracy.
To validate the method the team collected samples from a cohort of 60 volunteers made up of 30 men and 30 women. After analysis with HS-SPME-GC-MS, the data was analyzed using a number of methods including PLS-DA, OPLS-DA, and LDA. The LDA, or Linear Discriminant Analysis, showed the most significant discrimination between sexes, providing researchers with an accuracy greater than 96% when discriminating between male and female VOCs.
The authors of the study add, “This approach to analyzing hand odor volatiles can be applied when other discriminatory evidence such as DNA is lacking and allow for differentiation or class characterization such as sex, race, and age.”
With further validation, the research presented could lead to additional breakthroughs in forensic science including the determination of more factors about a perpetrator based on hand scent alone. Existing methods do exist that suggest other factors such as age and ethnicity can be determined through human odor analysis.