Speaker 1: Okay. Is your girlfriend conscious?
Lakhvinder Cheema: Yeah, she's-
Speaker 1: Is she all right?
Lakhvinder Cheema: Yes. Shes' [inaudible 00:00:12], because-
Speaker 1: Okay. So, what makes you think somebody poisoned your food?
Lakhvinder Cheema: Because, she was my ex- girlfriend. She came to visit my home.
Speaker 1: You think your ex- girlfriend's done it.
Lakhvinder Cheema: Yes, sir.
James Wong: January, 2009. A West London man and his fiance sat
James Wong: at their dinner table to share a meal. And to
James Wong: discuss their wedding planned for Valentine's Day. Just hours after
James Wong: he made this 999 call. Lakhvinder Cheema was dead and
James Wong: his fiance critically ill. The dead man's suspicion lay with
James Wong: his spurned ex- girlfriend. But where was the proof that
James Wong: this mother of three was behind the plot?
Luke smith: Aconite poisoning is extremely rare. And indeed, a lot of
Luke smith: doctors haven't even heard of it before. Let alone know
Luke smith: what its effects would be or how to identify a
Luke smith: poisoning of this case.
James Wong: Today we'll find out what happened when Kew were called
James Wong: upon to help catch a killer.
Monique Simmonds: You have this very sophisticated equipment. That allows us to
Monique Simmonds: have this fingerprint of the chemicals.
James Wong: I'm James Wong, and you're listening to Unearthed: Mysteries from
James Wong: an unseen world. From Royal Botanic gardens, Kew. Lakhvinder Cheema
James Wong: was known to his friends as lucky. He and his
James Wong: girlfriend Gurjeet Choongh, were busy planning their wedding. Choongh was
James Wong: 21. And had been in a world in relationship with
James Wong: exciting times ahead. But early in their engagement. Choongh had
James Wong: made an unexpected discovery. A woman called Lakhvir Singh, revealed
James Wong: that she and her fiance had been lovers for 15
James Wong: years. Lucky had ended the affair. But his ex lover
James Wong: had been heartbroken sending messages that became increasingly more abusive.
James Wong: But was this a motive for murder? Lakhvir Singh, was
James Wong: a mother of three. Her husband was suffering with cancer
James Wong: in hospital. In January, 2009. Singh went to Lucky's house
James Wong: in Feltham. And was let in by the lodger. Who
James Wong: saw her go into the fridge and take out a
James Wong: container of Curry. It was this Curry that lucky and
James Wong: his fiance were to later eat.
Speaker 1: And what makes you say somebody poisoned your food?
James Wong: After symptoms has started to appear. Lucky's sister and nephews
James Wong: helped get him and Gurjeet in the car to West
James Wong: Middlesex Hospital. But within hours he was dead. Gurjeet was
James Wong: placed into a medically induced coma, while scientists sought to
James Wong: identify the substance. This ultimately saved her life.
Luke smith: I'm Luke Smith. I am a consultant in acute medicine,
Luke smith: with an interest in toxicology. We see a lot of
Luke smith: things like paracetamol poisoning, alcohol poisoning, things like that. Aspirin,
Luke smith: occasionally carbon monoxide. In terms of plant poisonings, not as
Luke smith: common, but still we do see things. Plants generally tend
Luke smith: to produce a lot of chemicals which have effects. And
Luke smith: it depends on how you define plant poisoning. For example;
Luke smith: cocaine itself would be a plant poison in its truest
Luke smith: sense of the word. So, we see quite a lot
Luke smith: of that actually coming in into St. Thomas's hospital anyway.
Luke smith: Aconite poisoning is extremely rare. And indeed, a lot of
Luke smith: doctors haven't even heard of it before. Let alone know
Luke smith: what its effects would be or how to identify a
Luke smith: poisoning of this case, in a poisoned patient. In this
Luke smith: particular case, the poisoning was so severe that the evolution
Luke smith: of symptoms was very rapid and the patients became extremely
Luke smith: poisoned, extremely ill, very quickly. So much so, that the
Luke smith: timelines involved were so short that identifying the patients had
Luke smith: even been poisoned was a tricky one in itself. Cheema,
Luke smith: who was the gentleman who died. Suspected he'd been poisoned
Luke smith: and told the ambulance crew that when they called in the
Luke smith: ambulance. So, we had it in the back of our minds
Luke smith: that this might be a possibility. But because they deteriorated
Luke smith: and he died so rapidly, there was no time to
Luke smith: identify what the agent was. It was very interesting because
Luke smith: it is such a rare poison, particularly in the Western
Luke smith: world. In India it's more common. And it's also used
Luke smith: as a herbal remedy in Chinese herbal medicine. But it's
Luke smith: virtually unheard of in the UK or in America or
Luke smith: the Western world. From a physician point of view. The
Luke smith: whole goal of treatment in this particular case would be
Luke smith: to try and save the patient's life. So, we would
Luke smith: have an algorithm that we have drummed into us from
Luke smith: medical school about how to approach acutely unwell patients, whatever
Luke smith: is wrong with them. And it's to stabilize each individual
Luke smith: body system in turn to prevent the patient deteriorating or
Luke smith: dying. It's called the ABCDE approach. That is what we
Luke smith: the doctors looking after these patients would have tried to
Luke smith: have done in the first instance. So it wouldn't necessarily
Luke smith: have been about identifying a poison or an agent in
Luke smith: particular. It would be to try and save their lives.
James Wong: Proving a clear connection between ex- girlfriend Singh, the Curry
James Wong: and the toxin that killed lucky wasn't straightforward. The first
James Wong: challenge was to identify the toxin scientists tested for nicotine
James Wong: and arsenic, but have ruled both out.
Luke smith: Police were called and the National Poisons Information Service were
Luke smith: called. Who gave advice on what were the best tests
Luke smith: to do to try and identify and as yet unknown
Luke smith: poison and what tests could be sent off. So, things
Luke smith: like contents of the stomach, a postmortem could be sent,
Luke smith: blood samples could be taken. And we have to make
Luke smith: sure that we take the right blood samples. And they're
Luke smith: in the right blood tubes. And given this is a
Luke smith: legal case. There has to be a chain of evidence
Luke smith: and a chain of custody observed as well, to ensure
Luke smith: that any evidence that is secured and in identifying the
Luke smith: poison can be used in a court of law as
Luke smith: well. Lots of poisons don't have specific antidotes. And treatment
Luke smith: is supportive, rather than trying to find an agent to
Luke smith: counteract the effect of the poison. So, the approach from
Luke smith: the National Poison Service at the time, would have been
Luke smith: similar to any unknown poisons to just try and save lives.
Luke smith: But it would have been important that they had in
Luke smith: the back of their minds as well. We need to
Luke smith: find out what this was because this has legal implications.
Luke smith: And we need to think about what samples we need
Luke smith: to be collecting and how we do that. The main
Luke smith: presenting symptom they had initially was vomiting. And that's quite
Luke smith: a nebulous and ubiquitous symptom. But they progressed rapidly in
Luke smith: their poisoning. They then developed pins and needles in the
Luke smith: face, particularly around the mouth and then extending to their hands
Luke smith: as well. And that became quite disabling to the point
Luke smith: when they weren't able to use things like telephones and
Luke smith: things like that. They also then developed visual disturbances and
Luke smith: ultimately Cheema lost his ability to see quite rapidly. That
Luke smith: led on to muscle weakness, into changes in sensation in
Luke smith: the limbs. But the most significant from a medical point
Luke smith: of view effect of the poison, was what it was doing
Luke smith: to the poisoned patient's hearts. We can see that they
Luke smith: develop multiple arrhythmias of the heart. The electrical activity of
Luke smith: the heart was massively disturbed such to the point where
Luke smith: particularly in Cheema, it was unable to sustain the mechanical
Luke smith: ability of the heart to pump blood around the body.
Luke smith: This happened very rapidly. We're talking about between 60 to
Luke smith: 120 minutes after poisoning. The severe symptoms of poisoning occurred.
Luke smith: Aconite poisoning in particular is interesting because it has an
Luke smith: unusual mechanism of poisoning at the cellular level. It's relatively
Luke smith: unique. Other plant poisons, which have similar effects work in
Luke smith: different ways. Things like mandrake and hemlock work in slightly
Luke smith: different ways. They tend to block electrical signals, whereas Aconite
Luke smith: tends to increase them. And that's an unusual mechanism of
Luke smith: action. And it's also arguably harder to treat. It also
Luke smith: tends to have similar effect to nerve agent poisoning as
Luke smith: well. A lot of the symptoms you see are similar
Luke smith: to those that you would see in nerve agent poisoning.
Luke smith: And indeed, some of the chemicals in the Aconite plant
Luke smith: actually do work in a similar way to nerve agent
Luke smith: poisoning. They block an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase. Which ultimately leads
Luke smith: to the same symptoms that you would get in nerve
Luke smith: agent poisoning. It's also an incredibly rare poison. Which makes
Luke smith: it interesting by very into its nature.
James Wong: Few people have heard of forensic botany. A discipline that can stretch
James Wong: from the analysis of clues left in traces of ancient
James Wong: pine grains, to the information coded in tree rings. Whether
James Wong: it's a detailed understanding of the makeup of aquatic environments,
James Wong: to the chemical composition of soil, to the hidden rules
James Wong: of how ecosystems work. Knowing what to look for is
James Wong: half the challenge in helping investigators solve mysteries. It is
James Wong: here onsite at Kew, that scientists are able to help
James Wong: investigators solve their mysteries. I met professor Monique Simmonds, [ OBE to 00:09:33]
James Wong: to find out more
Monique Simmonds: I'm Monique Simmonds. And I am Deputy Director of Science
Monique Simmonds: at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
James Wong: Believe it or not, the tiniest samples can offer vital clues and
James Wong: evidence in a number of situations. Monique explained how plants
James Wong: can leave their trace, even when a perpetrator doesn't.
Monique Simmonds: Plants can be used in so many ways. They can
Monique Simmonds: be used to identify a scene by what could be
Monique Simmonds: on say, a pullover, the victim's clothes, their shoes, in
Monique Simmonds: the grooves of the shoes, the seeds, the particles. They
Monique Simmonds: can often identify where a crime took place. And then
Monique Simmonds: you've got how it's possibly being used if it's a
Monique Simmonds: plant toxin. So, different aspects of botany can assist with
Monique Simmonds: where plant took place. And possibly if a plant was
Monique Simmonds: used. Which plants and therefore, where it could have come
Monique Simmonds: from. So you can use it in different ways. But
Monique Simmonds: you need to have that basic botanical knowledge. Depending on
Monique Simmonds: the role that the plant plays, you'll need to have
Monique Simmonds: different aspects of plant science coming into it. So, pollen
Monique Simmonds: or even the hairs on the back of a leaf
Monique Simmonds: of a plant that can cling to your clothing can
Monique Simmonds: be preserved for many years.
James Wong: Plants can't run away or hide from threats. So they've
James Wong: had to evolve a different evolutionary strategy. In the form
James Wong: of toxic compounds that can act as a defense mechanism.
James Wong: Monique and her colleagues were brought in to help identify
James Wong: the mysterious poison when events were still unfolding. Police suspected
James Wong: murder, but the evidence Kew could provide would help them
James Wong: find the answers.
Monique Simmonds: Initially when they got the emergency telephone. Then when they
Monique Simmonds: got the two patients into hospital. There were some common
Monique Simmonds: characteristics. And that was blurred vision, numbness, a very shallow
Monique Simmonds: heartbeat. And that indicated some form of toxicity. So they
Monique Simmonds: rule out the usual things that could be associated like
Monique Simmonds: arsenic, et cetera. The patients didn't have some of those
Monique Simmonds: characteristics like diarrhea and other things. So it looked like
Monique Simmonds: it was having an effect on the nervous system and
Monique Simmonds: that leads you to possibly plant based poisons. And some
Monique Simmonds: of these that are known to affect the nervous system
Monique Simmonds: can be alkaloids, a group of chemicals from plants. That
Monique Simmonds: are known to cause effects on the nervous system. But, at
Monique Simmonds: that stage, they couldn't detect them. Because we'd already done
Monique Simmonds: work for the National Poisonous Unit. Some of those involved,
Monique Simmonds: knew about some of the work that we've been doing
Monique Simmonds: at Kew.
James Wong: At this stage information was strictly on a need to
James Wong: know basis. The symptoms had led scientists to look at
James Wong: aconitum, which you might know as monkshood or Wolf's bane.
Monique Simmonds: We were asked to see if we could assist with
Monique Simmonds: a toxicity. So we hadn't got a lot of background
Monique Simmonds: information other than the fact that the people involved in
Monique Simmonds: the case thought that toxicity could be associated with alkaloids
Monique Simmonds: that come from aconitum species. But their test should show
Monique Simmonds: that that wasn't the case. We were not told anything
Monique Simmonds: about the victims or how this had happened. We were
Monique Simmonds: just asked if we could identify these because they're associated
Monique Simmonds: with a potential murder case. Then you get more details
Monique Simmonds: as you guided through. So, sometimes they don't want to
Monique Simmonds: totally lead you. We're usually not told everything. Because they
Monique Simmonds: want to have some form of independence. So, it's gradually
Monique Simmonds: revealed to us.
James Wong: In any poisoning case, it's a race against time to
James Wong: identify the chemical toxin that caused the symptoms.
Monique Simmonds: If you can have a knowledge about what the plant
Monique Simmonds: is and the toxin associated with that adverse response. Then
Monique Simmonds: that's where the medical profession can be more accurate in
Monique Simmonds: the form of antidote that there will use because many
Monique Simmonds: of those antidotes are pretty strong in themselves. And sometimes
Monique Simmonds: it can be very dangerous to use the wrong material.
Monique Simmonds: You can cause more problems. But if you can have
Monique Simmonds: it really directed by an accurate identification of what the
Monique Simmonds: toxins are that can assist greatly. The ability of having a
Monique Simmonds: real professional in, member of my team, or it's with
Monique Simmonds: Jeff Kite. To be able to get that really accurate
Monique Simmonds: analysis done at each stage is really a key to
Monique Simmonds: solve this issue. So it's like having a unique botanical
Monique Simmonds: fingerprint of that particular sample that could be followed.
James Wong: Monique explained how samples were released to Kew for testing
James Wong: as the investigation and the questions evolve.
Monique Simmonds: So was it aconitine or is it a related species?
Monique Simmonds: So at that stage, we didn't know all the details. That
Monique Simmonds: only became clearer later on. They said they be able to send
Monique Simmonds: us some samples of the blood or samples from the digestive
Monique Simmonds: track of one of the victims. And then the Curry. Could
Monique Simmonds: we look at the Curry? And then they said that
Monique Simmonds: they had got some leaf powder from a bag that
Monique Simmonds: had been found in Mrs. Singh's Pocket. And we said, "
Monique Simmonds: Well, we'll start off on that one. That would be
Monique Simmonds: the easiest thing. If you think there is a link."
James Wong: Thanks for listening to Unearthed. I'll be back again in
James Wong: just a minute. But first here's a message from our
James Wong: supporter, Kim Cattrall.
Kim Cattrall: As a charity, the Royal Protonic Gardens, Kew is facing
Kim Cattrall: a severe funding crisis, right now. The impact of Corona
Kim Cattrall: virus has created a financial shortfall of 15,000, 000 pounds. This
Kim Cattrall: money is vital for the upkeep of these beautiful Botanic
Kim Cattrall: Gardens. And crucial to continuing its global conservation work. Plants
Kim Cattrall: and fungi hold many of the answers to the world's
Kim Cattrall: biggest challenges such as climate change, food security and biodiversity
Kim Cattrall: loss. And Kew needs to play a role in furthering
Kim Cattrall: the science and identifying desperately needed solutions. If there's one
Kim Cattrall: positive thing that could come out of this pandemic. It
Kim Cattrall: will be to encourage each and every one of us
Kim Cattrall: to look a fresh and with urgency at these global
Kim Cattrall: challenges. If you are enjoying this podcast and feel inspired
Kim Cattrall: by the work that Kew does. Please go to Kew.
Kim Cattrall: org to donate today. To help not only protect Kew,
Kim Cattrall: but also preserve the future of our planet.
James Wong: Because we understand the processes behind plants. It's possible for
James Wong: the team at Kew to work with a wide range
James Wong: of samples in forensic cases.
Monique Simmonds: Yes, we have an idea because of work that's been
Monique Simmonds: done on the, by synthetic processes of these plants. And
Monique Simmonds: sometimes have therefore that they can be broken down. Now,
Monique Simmonds: if we get something from the gut. It may be that it
Monique Simmonds: hasn't been totally digested. So, sometimes it's easier to be
Monique Simmonds: able to identify a plant matter in the gut. It
Monique Simmonds: will depend on what part of the gut. In some
Monique Simmonds: cases we will get the blood samples. If that is
Monique Simmonds: the case, then we need to know what are the
Monique Simmonds: breakdown components associated with the particular plant metabolites. In this
Monique Simmonds: case, we didn't need to go as far as that.
Monique Simmonds: Because we could link what had been found in the
Monique Simmonds: pocket. What had been found in the Curry. What had been
Monique Simmonds: found in the samples that were found in the fridge.
Monique Simmonds: And then in the stomach contents. If had it been later
Monique Simmonds: on, we might not have been able to do it.
Monique Simmonds: But unfortunately, it was a very short time before the
Monique Simmonds: victim died in this particular case.
James Wong: So what did they find?
Monique Simmonds: Some people wouldn't realize at Kew, that we'd have this
Monique Simmonds: very sophisticated equipment that allows us to do the chemical
Monique Simmonds: work. And that's done by a method called liquid chromatography-
Monique Simmonds: mass spectrometry. That allows us to have this fingerprint of
Monique Simmonds: the chemicals. We could see that there were 19 alkaloids
Monique Simmonds: in the sample. Now that's quite complex. But one of
Monique Simmonds: them was in high amounts. And that was [ pseudo I-carnitine 00:18: 48].
James Wong: Pseudo I- carnitine, an extremely toxic alkaloid chemical. Is found
James Wong: within the roots of a plant known as Indian monkshood
James Wong: or aconitum ferox. This discovery was absolutely key in understanding what
James Wong: had happened. It hadn't shown up in previous tests simply
James Wong: because the scientists didn't know to look for it.
Monique Simmonds: Now, that is something that the previous people hadn't spotted. Now, why
Monique Simmonds: we had it on our database. Is the fact that
Monique Simmonds: we had previously dealt with some toxicity problems associated with
Monique Simmonds: this plant material. And this plant material we thought, it
Monique Simmonds: actually doesn't come from a British plant. It's a possibility
Monique Simmonds: it comes from a Indian plant and that we were
Monique Simmonds: able to put the pieces of the jigsaw together. So,
Monique Simmonds: once we got the chemical fingerprints. We could then go
Monique Simmonds: back from the material that been found in the pocket
Monique Simmonds: to look at the Curry. And we could see that
Monique Simmonds: the Curry had a similar type of profile. And then
Monique Simmonds: we could link that to the victim. You need to
Monique Simmonds: know what to look for. And then the methodology that
Monique Simmonds: would enable you to detect it. Because in some cases,
Monique Simmonds: there aren't commercial libraries that have all the ingredients saying
Monique Simmonds: that could be potential toxics. You have to build those
Monique Simmonds: libraries up. Which is one of the things that Kew
Monique Simmonds: has been doing. And of course, the other thing that
Monique Simmonds: we have at Kew. Is knowledge about the uses of
Monique Simmonds: plants. Now, some of those could be bad uses I.
Monique Simmonds: e; plants that are known to be toxic and possibly
Monique Simmonds: have been known to be used in homicide. And we
Monique Simmonds: collect that type of information. So we just knew that
Monique Simmonds: historically, some plants have been used in India for homicide.
Monique Simmonds: And just having that knowledge enables us to sometimes make
Monique Simmonds: those links. Especially, when we have knowledge about the symptoms
Monique Simmonds: that the person has, who died. So we can put
Monique Simmonds: the bits of the jigsaw together
James Wong: When it came to the Curry Killer Case. Establishing what
James Wong: the mysterious substance was. Was not only key in the
James Wong: race to find lifesaving treatment, but also in seeking justice.
James Wong: That unique plant fingerprint allowed Monique to establish the species
James Wong: and possible origin of this plant. This intern shed further
James Wong: light on events.
Monique Simmonds: When we thought, Oh right, this is a plant that
Monique Simmonds: comes from India. Or let's say, that part of Asia.
Monique Simmonds: It's kind of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, that kind of area.
Monique Simmonds: Is it possible that she'd visited or it could have
Monique Simmonds: been that she got it from a herbalist. But you're
Monique Simmonds: thinking maybe not. Of course, that becomes important. You could
Monique Simmonds: show that this had been planned.
James Wong: Aconitum is a notoriously toxic genus containing over 250 species. You
James Wong: might have heard it's common names like devil's helmet, monkshood,
James Wong: or wolfsbane. Yep, it's that mysterious plant mythologized by [ Arvid Keats 00:
James Wong: 22:22]. And of course your favorite Teen Werewolf novels. It
James Wong: typically has blue purple hooded flowers. But there's quite a
James Wong: lot of variation across the genus. The alkaloid toxin it
James Wong: produces aconitine, is notoriously difficult to detect. In fact, the
James Wong: last time an English court convicted anyone of using the
James Wong: poison, was in 1882. When a doctor called George Henry Lamson used
James Wong: it to poison his brother- in- law. It's a fast
James Wong: acting neuro and cardiotoxic. And victims appear to have asphyxiated.
James Wong: Monique explains a little more about the history of the
James Wong: species we're familiar with in the UK and it's cousin
James Wong: aconitum ferox
Monique Simmonds: Often it hasn't been used in a bad way. It's
Monique Simmonds: known to contain poisons. The other bit of the story
Monique Simmonds: is the fact for a long time, in the past it had been
Monique Simmonds: used. Because it was actually very difficult to detect these
Monique Simmonds: types of compounds. So, people have got away with using
Monique Simmonds: some of these plants as toxins. Because the investigators hadn't
Monique Simmonds: got the ability to detect it unless they found the
Monique Simmonds: plant material had been used. So, this was a species
Monique Simmonds: called ferox. That comes from India this had been used in
Monique Simmonds: the case. So it's not the British species that's often
Monique Simmonds: goes under the name of Wolf bane. So it's an
Monique Simmonds: example you could say of 19 century methods being detected
Monique Simmonds: by 21st century techniques. We've advanced in our ability to
Monique Simmonds: detect toxins that we would not have had in the 19th
Monique Simmonds: and earlier 20th century.
James Wong: I asked Monique what we knew about the modern users
James Wong: of this species of aconitum ferox in India.
Monique Simmonds: It is used sometimes as a medicine in low concentrations.
Monique Simmonds: And sometimes it will be therefore used if it's a
Monique Simmonds: trained herbalist. It will be used say, to clear the
Monique Simmonds: body. And sometimes it's used for anti- inflammatory conditions. But
Monique Simmonds: it would only be used for very short time. It's
Monique Simmonds: sometimes also used in treatment of eye problems. But in
Monique Simmonds: the hands of a real professional herbalist maybe okay. But
Monique Simmonds: sometimes they don't fully know enough about the plant to
Monique Simmonds: be aware of some of the problems associated with continual
Monique Simmonds: use. People should think twice about using some of these
Monique Simmonds: plants. They had tried to put evidence like this together.
Monique Simmonds: And it doesn't always work because you only have part
Monique Simmonds: of a story. I think in this particular case, the
Monique Simmonds: police were able to link the fact that Mrs. Singh
Monique Simmonds: had been over to India in a potential had got
Monique Simmonds: some material. She was in possession of the raw material.
Monique Simmonds: Was evidence that it was in the Curry, there's evidence
Monique Simmonds: that that Curry was then used as part of a
Monique Simmonds: meal, with the two people that suffered. And the fact
Monique Simmonds: that we could then link that with one of the
Monique Simmonds: victims. So, if we could put every bit of the
Monique Simmonds: stage together. Enabled the police to have a pretty solid
Monique Simmonds: case. And then we found out afterwards that evidently there was an attempt before.
James Wong: The evidence gathered including Kew's vital findings. Were enough to
James Wong: convict a murderer. The judge, Paul Worsley at the Old
James Wong: Bailey condemn Singh's actions in court.
Judge Paul Wesly: You are not just a spurned lover. You did not
Judge Paul Wesly: simply explode in anger at your rejection. You set about
Judge Paul Wesly: a cold and calculating revenge.
James Wong: For the first time in decades. An Aconitum murderer was
James Wong: behind bars. This calculated murder didn't only have an impact
James Wong: on the lives of Cheema's family and fiance. The investigation
James Wong: broke new ground for how Kew collaborates with authorities. I
James Wong: asked Monique how the pace of the investigation has caused
James Wong: her and others to reflect on how such cases are
James Wong: handled moving forwards. Perhaps a new methodology might even be
James Wong: useful in other forensic processes.
Monique Simmonds: We're hoping to increase the amount of knowledge about DNA
Monique Simmonds: that would be able to be used. We're also very
Monique Simmonds: keen on crime associated with the trade in endangered species.
Monique Simmonds: And that will be recognizing timber that is from endangered
Monique Simmonds: plants, to make sure that only appropriate timber gets used
Monique Simmonds: in different forms of timber trade.
Luke smith: Kew is an invaluable resource in investigating unknown poisons. Because
Luke smith: when you exhaust your list of common poisons. You have
Luke smith: to start looking at the rarer things. Often plant- based
Luke smith: poisoning does tend to be the second or third line
Luke smith: chemical, which people fall back on when they're either poisoning
Luke smith: themselves or poisoning others. And we end up having to
Luke smith: look for rarer poisons, which are known to have significant
Luke smith: effects. And the plant world generally tends to provide those
Luke smith: chemicals quite frequently. So, Kew is an invaluable resource in
Luke smith: testing samples and being able to compare chemicals that we
Luke smith: identify at post- mortem or in blood samples in the
Luke smith: living patient with chemicals that they have isolated from plants.
Luke smith: They're also an invaluable resource, when we are identifying a
Luke smith: poisoning or trying to exclude a poisoning in patients in
Luke smith: whom we know that they've actually ingested a plant itself.
Luke smith: So we can actually compare what we have to, what
Luke smith: they have on their records. To identify whether it truly
Luke smith: is a poison or not. An example of that would
Luke smith: be hemlock, which is poisonous in the UK and cow
Luke smith: parsley, which has not look very similar. So, it's useful
Luke smith: that they can identify the two different species and be able
Luke smith: to tell us whether what has been ingested is actually
Luke smith: toxic or not.
James Wong: Next time on Unearthed from Royal Botanic gardens.
Speaker 8: 80% of people in Papua New Guinea live in rural
Speaker 8: areas. And when we say rural, we don't really mean
Speaker 8: people driving around in land rovers in Devin. We mean
Speaker 8: people living right out in really hard to access areas.
James Wong: We'll find out how plants from around the world have
James Wong: been used locally exported and exploited as medicines. By harnessing
James Wong: the properties of plants all the way from forest to
James Wong: pharmacy. Social history has been changed. Ecosystems, reshaped and communities
James Wong: transformed around the world.
Speaker 9: Some Indigenous tribes in Northern Ecuador, they use species of (inaudible)
Speaker 9: as a contraceptive.
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James Wong: KewUnearthed and follow @ Kewgardens on social media. I'm James Wong.
James Wong: Thanks for listening.