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. We analyzed volatile congeners in five samples of Romanian home-made plum spirits collected from four Transylvanian counties were double distillation is used after fruits fermentation, by a GC method developed in the Institute of Legal Medicine from Freiburg. Volumetric concentration of ethanol ranged between 52 and 76%. Calibration with aqueous standards resulted in linearity with a correlation coefficient of over 0.995 for each congener. We found high amounts of isobutanol in our samples compared to beverages listed in the literature, influencing forensic opinion concerning the time of ingestion in correlation with concentration of 1.propanol. Another congener, usually absent in alcoholic beverages, 1-butanol, was constantly present in all our spirit samples, meaning a limitation of its use as a blood putrefaction marker. Volatile congener composition of all our samples complied with EEC regulations with regard to fruit spirits.

We may find a number of volatile congeners in alcoholic beverages, mainly high-class alcohols. Identification and quantification of these substances may reveal certain patterns useful both in drivers' blood alcohol concentration interpretation and in forensic pathology for toxicological evaluations. Aim of our study is to detect structural patterns in most frequently consumed beverages in Romania, namely brandies, home-made fruit spirits (tuica) and beers. We analyzed 31 samples of beverages using a gas-chromatographic self-validated method for qualitative analysis of congeners (methanol, acetone, 1 and 2-butanol, n-propanol, isobutanol, 2-methyl-1butanol) and quantitative determination. Principal component analysis was the statistical method used for identification of trends in the multidimensional data set. Beers showed the most homogenous cluster while home-made spirits revealed a large dispersion and variation regarding their chemical structure. Methanol is the principal component of discrimination efficiency among the groups of beverages.

Background. Methanol intoxication may be the result of either accidental or intentional ingestion, in case of substantial exposures coma and death may occur. Methanol poisoning during human pregnancy was rarely described. Material and method. We present the case of a 39-years old pregnant woman hospitalized for severe methanol intoxication. We reviewed the entire hospital medical documentation and performed blood and gastric content analysis for alcohol congeners using validated headspace-gaschromatography method (samples collected at admission from mother and at autopsy from fetus); we also examined all organs of the mother and of the stillborn, including microscopic sections stained with haematoxylin-eosin. Results and discussions. The 34 weeks pregnant patient was transported to the hospital due to respiratory distress, lethargy and coma. Laboratory findings revealed metabolic acidosis with anion gap. At presentation intrauterine fetal death was diagnosed and the fetus was extracted next day. The woman died after four days in hospital. At post-mortem examination we found marked brain edema, brain stem hemorrhages, focal bleedings in the white matter of the temporal and parietal lobes, leptomeningeal hyperaemia, kidneys with tubular necrosis and hemorrhages in renal cortex. Autopsy of the fetus revealed only leptomeningeal hyperaemia, suggesting a rapid death. Blood ethanol concentration was 1.03 g/l in mother and 1.98 g/l in foetus while methanol concentration was 1.72 g/l and 1.99 g/l respectively. Relatively high amounts of amyl-alcohol (2-methyl 1-butanol) in both samples indicate consumption of fruit distillate, while toxic blood methanol concentration can be explained only by contaminated beverage consumption. Conclusions. Intrauterine fetal death may occur without important morphological lesions in case of methanol transplacentar intoxication. Methanol is rapidly transferred to the fetus and cumulates in fetal circulation, while in case of other volatile congeners the transfer through the placental barrier seems to be selective.