ReviewFrontiers in microbiology2023
The smell of death. State-of-the-art and future research directions.
Review in Frontiers in microbiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- A VOC-centric web of biological interaction on corpse: Consideration for forensic PMI estimation.iScience · 2026Review
- Dual-Column HS-GC-FID/FID Method for In-Depth Analysis of Low-Molecular-Weight Volatile Alcohols inJournal of xenobiotics · 2026Article
- Experimental effects of paracetamol overdose on the development of forensic insects.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2026Article
- Synthetic Cadaver Odorants and the Sulfur Gap: Linking Chemistry and Canine Olfaction in Human Remains Detection.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Urgent public health concerns due to rising violence and inadequate cadaver management in ecuador.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2025Article
- Article
- Volabolomic Fingerprinting for Post-Mortem Interval Estimation: A Novel Physiological Approach.Biomolecules · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The decomposition of a body is inseparably associated with the release of several types of odors. This phenomenon has been used in the training of sniffer dogs for decades. The odor profile associated with decomposition consists of a range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), chemical composition of which varies over time, temperature, environmental conditions, and the type of microorganisms, and insects colonizing the carcass. Mercaptans are responsible for the bad smell associated with corpses; however, there are no unified recommendations for conducting forensic analysis based on the detectable odor of revealed corpses and previous research on VOCs shows differing results. The aim of this review is to systematize the current knowledge on the type of volatile organic compounds related to the decomposition process, depending on a few variables. This knowledge will improve the methods of VOCs detection and analysis to be used in modern forensic diagnostics and improve the methods of training dogs for forensic applications.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.