Citation

Musshoff F, Jacob B, Fowinkel C, Daldrup T. Int. J. Legal Med. 1993; 106(1): 45-50.

Affiliation

Institute of Legal Medicine, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany.

Comment In:

Int J Legal Med 2008;122(4):357-8.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8398891

Abstract

In a case of suicide in a depressive 19-year-old man with considerable ingestion of new leaves, resorption of yew ingredients could be demonstrated. The main substance could be identified as 3,5-dimethoxyphenol, the aglycone of taxicatine, which is a typical ingredient of yew leaves. 3,5-dimethoxyphenol was demonstrated in harvested yew leaves, stomach content and cardiac blood of the victim. Structure confirmation was achieved by means of HPLC, UV, GC-MS, IR and 1H-NMR spectroscopy. None of the Taxus alkoids could be identified. The components detected by TLC have not yet been identified. The results demonstrate that 3,5-dimethoxyphenol can be used as a marker in cases of intoxication by yew ingredients.

Language: en