NMR Proton Relaxometry in Meat Science

An interesting feature of the relaxation is that it is not a spontaneous incident, but governed by molecular motion and interactions between nuclei. Consequently, it provides valuable information about the physical and chemical environments in which the nuclei are embedded. As mentioned above, meat contains approximately 75% water, organised within different structures, which is of fundamental significance for the quality of 

Upon the introduction of NMR proton relaxometry in muscle studies, it was early recognised that a model based only on dipolar interactions is far too simple,8 14 as  

An explanation of these observations was attempted in terms of the existence of different states/compartmentalisation inspired by the model proposed by Zimmerman and Brittin,15 suggesting that a spin system can be made up of a fixed number of phases with each phase characterised by an inherent relaxation rate. The relaxation observed will then depend on the rate of exchange between phases, and three situations can be outlined (i) fast, it) slow, and (Hi) intermediate exchange. 

In case of fast exchange, the observed relaxation will be mono-exponential with the relaxation rate being an averaging of the individual inherent relaxation rates  

In case of slow exchange between phases, the relaxation decay becomes the sum of relaxation of the various phases and thereby multi-exponential  

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