45. Judy Buenoano, nicknamed the Black Widow, was convicted of murdering several

Question

45. Judy Buenoano, nicknamed the Black Widow,
was convicted of murdering several husbands,
boyfriends, and one of her children to collect
insurance money. She would use arsenic to poison
them, and local doctors who were unfamiliar
with the symptoms of arsenic poisoning ruled the
deaths as due to natural causes. A person who has
been exposed to arsenic or heavy metal poisons
such as lead or mercury will retain trace amounts
of the poison in the hair. Each exposure to the
poison is recorded in the victim’s hair as the hair
continues to grow. Based on what you learned from
Chapter 13 on poisons and from the primary
protein structure of hair, explain why these
poisons will show up in a person’s hair. (CP)

Explanation / Answer

The major protein compontent of hair is keratin which contain high number of cysteine. It is well evident that cysteine amino acid contain functional SH groups. These groups can bind to trivalent inorganic arsenic resulting in deposition of arsenic in hairs.

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