Evidence of adipocere in a burial pit from the foot and mouth epidemic of 1967 using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Adipocere: What is known after over two centuries of research

“…Subsequent to Evans' work in 1963 [32], a robust literature has formed related to adipocere research including key reviews by Takatori [33], Fiedler and Graw [34] and Aufderheide [15]. Knowledge also has been advanced by numerous case reports [10,[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] and research, especially on chemical composition.…”

Modelling the buried human body environment in upland climes using three contrasting field sites

“…Forbes et al have shown that in soils moisture accelerates adipocere formation but cold and acidic conditions inhibit the changes [45,47]. In addition, Vane and Trick found that with increasing depth less adipocere had formed in foot and mouth burial pits [59]. Thus in the moorland site the cold acidic conditions have predominated over the role of the high moisture conditions, but the role of the peat matrix is not fully understood.…”

Remains of the day-preservation of organic micro-residues on stone tools

“…Adipocere is a solid greyish-white substance. When bound to potassium it is wax-like and when bound to sodium it is hard and crumbly (Forbes et al, 2005b;Vane and Trick, 2005). Over time, adipocere hardens and becomes more brittle (Forbes et al, 2005c).…”