Amino acid content of bone after death

  • The amino acid content of bone decreases slowly after death
  • It can be assessed by thin layer chromatography technique
  • Fresh bones contain atleast 15 amino acids
  • If the number of amino acids is found to be less than 7, the bone is alteast 100 years old
  • If proline and hydroxy proline are absent, it indicates that the bone is very old