ABSTRACT
Forensic chemistry is a wide-ranging forensic discipline that spans many types of physical and biological evidence. The common theme that unifies all is the concept of applied analytical chemistry-the area of chemistry that focuses on the identification of chemicals in materials and in some cases the quantitation of these materials. The latter is particularly important in forensic toxicology, where the type and amount of drugs, poisons, or metabolites is critically important in determination of cause of death, for example. In later sections, we will see how analytical chemistry can contribute to questioned document analysis and trace evidence analysis.
