A New NMR technique: HR-MAS applied to animal and vegetable soft materials

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy is widely employed for the identification and structural characterization of organic compounds in solution and in the solid state. In this contribution we are going to show some recent applications of a new NMR technique, namely High Resolution-Magic Angle Spinning (HR-MAS), to soft materials, in particular to porcine and veal meat, and to citrus lemon. HR-MAS technique can be considered a hybrid technique between solid-state and classical solution-state NMR. Dedicated HR-MAS probes permit to perform one-dimensional and two-dimensional (1D and 2D) correlation experiments, analogue to those commonly applied in solution, on semisolid samples, and to detect signals from metabolites and macromolecules.