SPJ Publication
International Journal of Forensic, Legal, and Health Sciences
Open Access Pilot Study

Detection of Pollen Adherence on Different Fabrics Using Digital Microscopy: A Pilot Study with Bougainvillea Glabra and Parthenium Hysterophorus

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* Corresponding author: Nandini Katare

DOI10.62502/ ijflhs/v1i3art1
Pages 1–7Language ENLicenceCC BY-NC 4.0 Crossmark XML metadata
  1. Received10 May 2026
  2. Accepted17 Aug 2026
  3. Published22 Sep 2026

Abstract

Background: Pollen transferred to clothing can link a person or object to an outdoor scene, but its evidential value depends on how well different fabrics retain grains after disturbance.

Objective: To document the adherence of pollen from Bougainvillea glabra and Parthenium hysterophorus on four commonly used fabrics (cotton, terry-cotton, crepe and georgette) and to describe the fraction retained after mechanical disturbance by vortexing.

Methods: Fabric squares (5 × 5 cm) were imaged with a Miscope digital microscope (Zarbeco LLC; 100×) before and after pollen application. Pollen was dusted directly from flowers onto the fabrics, and grains were counted manually, segment by segment. The samples were then vortexed (5 min, 2800 rpm) and recounted under identical settings. Three replicates were used per species–fabric combination. Retention was expressed as the percentage of grains remaining after vortexing, with exact (Clopper–Pearson) 95% confidence intervals.

Results: A total of 163 grains were counted before vortexing (57 B. glabra; 106 P. hysterophorus). Overall retention was 68.4% (95% CI 54.8–80.1) for B. glabra and 76.4% (95% CI 67.2–84.1) for P. hysterophorus. For B. glabra, retention was 100% on crepe and georgette (n = 8 and 4 grains, respectively), 64.1% on terry-cotton and 33.3% on cotton. For P. hysterophorus, retention was highest on cotton (92.6%), followed by georgette (81.8%), terry-cotton (76.3%) and crepe (60.0%). Terry-cotton carried the most B. glabra grains before vortexing (39).

Conclusions: In this pilot study, the ranking of fabrics by retention differed between the two species, which suggests, as a hypothesis for further testing, that pollen type and fabric properties interact. The small counts and the absence of replicate-level data preclude formal statistical comparison.

Keywords

Forensic Palynology, Pollen RetentionTrace EvidenceFabrics

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