On-site detection of saliva-alcohol as a function of blood alcohol concentration using colorimetric biosensor based on deposited Chromium (VII) Oxide Nanoparticles on filter paper
Alcohol intoxication is usually associated with drowning, falls, overdoses, fires, occupational accidents, physical and sexual abusements, domestic violence and traffic accidents. Therefore, alcohol considered an important factor for the explanation of the occurrence of many types of injuries. For many purposes such as forensic, it is important to establish a detection method to ensure whether the subject or the patient have consumed alcohol at a level that would be the reason for the accidents or injuries occur. Therefore, in this work, a simple, rapid and low-cost method was developed and validated for the detection of the alcohol in saliva as a function of blood alcohol concentration (BAC). The method is based on fabricated a biosensor consisted of chromium oxide nanoparticles deposited on filter paper. The validation of the biosensor was tested on 50 participants which categories into two selected groups (1 and 2). Group 1 consisted of 20 subjects from an organized party (no alcohol), they usually consumed three to four drinks as an average per week while Group 2 consisted of 30 subjects from an organized party the local bar (alcohol group), usually consumed two to three drinks per day. The results of the present study have shown that 95% of group 1 demonstrated positive results with variable colour intensities of the BAC in comparison to the 80% only of subjects from group 2. The present study has approved that the fabricated biosensor can effectively detect 0.02% or more of BAC which can be a useful test for many purposes such as medical, forensic, research and workplace.