Pollen identification of three notorious illicit drug plants and its potential applications in forensic practice
Yi-Ming Wu
State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorLi-Li Lu PhD
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorGan Xie PhD
State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Big Data and AI Research Center of Biodiversity Conservation, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorDavid Kay Ferguson PhD
Institute of Palaeontology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Hong-Ling Guo PhD
Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Public Security of China, Beijing, China
Correspondence
Jin-Feng Li and Yu-Fei Wang, State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
Email: [email protected] and [email protected]
Hong-Ling Guo, Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Public Security of China, Beijing 100038, China.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Yu-Fei Wang PhD
State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Correspondence
Jin-Feng Li and Yu-Fei Wang, State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
Email: [email protected] and [email protected]
Hong-Ling Guo, Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Public Security of China, Beijing 100038, China.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Jin-Feng Li PhD
State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Correspondence
Jin-Feng Li and Yu-Fei Wang, State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
Email: [email protected] and [email protected]
Hong-Ling Guo, Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Public Security of China, Beijing 100038, China.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorYi-Ming Wu
State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorLi-Li Lu PhD
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorGan Xie PhD
State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Big Data and AI Research Center of Biodiversity Conservation, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Search for more papers by this authorDavid Kay Ferguson PhD
Institute of Palaeontology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Hong-Ling Guo PhD
Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Public Security of China, Beijing, China
Correspondence
Jin-Feng Li and Yu-Fei Wang, State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
Email: [email protected] and [email protected]
Hong-Ling Guo, Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Public Security of China, Beijing 100038, China.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Yu-Fei Wang PhD
State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Correspondence
Jin-Feng Li and Yu-Fei Wang, State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
Email: [email protected] and [email protected]
Hong-Ling Guo, Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Public Security of China, Beijing 100038, China.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Jin-Feng Li PhD
State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Correspondence
Jin-Feng Li and Yu-Fei Wang, State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
Email: [email protected] and [email protected]
Hong-Ling Guo, Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Public Security of China, Beijing 100038, China.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorYi-Ming Wu, Li-Li Lu, and Gan Xie are co-authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
Opium poppy, coca and cannabis are raw materials for three notorious illicit drugs. For a long time, drug lords have been growing and smuggling these drugs in a variety of ways and channels and are continually finding new ways of trafficking their wares, which has led to the increasing difficulty of global drug enforcement. In the present paper, we propose an innovative pollen identification system for these important drug plants, which provides a tool for screening and detection of the drugs to aid in drug enforcement. By utilizing the characteristics of these fine particles, their abundant production, and high resistance to decay, we believe this tool could be applied in the following scenarios: detecting and dynamically monitoring drug cultivation activities; determining whether a suspect has been to fields of drug plants and determining whether the site has ever been planted with a drug plant and/or was involved in drug production. In the future, combined with microscope automatic image acquisition technology and intelligent image recognition technology, this pollen identification system is expected to be used to screen three notorious illicit drug plants, thus enhancing the efficiency of drug related crime investigations.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
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