Unknown to others, saliva has more uses than the average person thinks. Besides the obvious uses such as aiding a human in breaking down the food one masticates in their mouth, saliva can also be very useful in a crime. For example, one can find another person’s DNA or blood type from the other person’s saliva. Doctor’s from the Utrecht Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences have also concentrated the usage of saliva to detect drugs in the human body.

Saliva’s purpose in the human body as defined by The World Book Encyclopedia is to moisten and soften all the food that is put into the mouth, which aids in the chewing of the food. It also keeps the mouth moist, which unfortunate to those who suffer from dry mouth, is important for comfort. For furry animals, it is used in response to the animals heat stress. And in the most extreme cases, the American short-tailed shrew uses its toxic saliva to defend itself and kill its enemies. But what is its importance to forensic biology?

Saliva is analyzed in many different methods. Gas and liquid chromatography are two methods. However, there are also objects to aid in the collection of saliva. For example, sometimes, they give a person a piece of cotton to chew on and collect their saliva in that manner.

The significance in saliva was seen in the Monica Lewinsky case and the president where they thought they found traces of the president’s secretions on her infamous dress. Also where this was relevant was when they extracted the saliva on the envelope involved with the World Trade Center bombing. Maybe now people will rethink where they let their lips touch because once you have their saliva, you have their DNA.