Applications of chemical-shift-selective NMR microscopy to the non-invasive histochemistry of plant materials

Chemical-shift-selective imaging at microscopic resolution has been applied to the study of various plant materials including orange peel, grape berries and both dried and undried fruits of fennel. It is shown that selective imaging of aromatics and carbohydrates as well as water and oil can be performed with in-plane resolution down to 13 microns and slice thicknesses of 1 mm or less, at a field strength of 4.7 Tesla. The noninvasive nature of the method gives it advantages over established methods of plant histochemistry which involve sectioning and staining to reveal different chemical constituents.