BQ chewing is a tradition in the tropical and subtropical areas of India, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and New Guinea. BQ chewing poses a problem to the collection and DNA analysis of buccal samples for genetic studies or forensic investigations. One way of collecting buccal samples is to spread the sample on treated cards immediately after swabbing. FTA cards were evaluated for their usefulness in the collection and subsequent PCR-based profiling of buccal samples using nine Short Tandem Repeat (STR) markers. The utility of the FTA cards was compared to a standard organic extraction procedure. Findings revealed a higher success rate of amplification for the samples prepared using the FTA cards (89 percent) when compared to the standard organic extraction procedure (7 percent). The presence of inhibitors in liquid DNA samples was verified when control DNA did not amplify the liquid BQ samples. The results are encouraging because FTA cards are more practical for use in a field setting than the traditional tubes containing buccal swabs. References