标题：Investigating of The Effect of High Temperature and Humidity on Water and Fat Distribution in Hazelnuts by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and NMR Relaxometry Techniques
摘要：As being a low moisture content nut, quality of hazelnuts is affected significantly when stored in a high humidenvironment. The aim of this study is to explore the effect of storage in a high humid and high temperature environment,on the quality of hazelnuts by using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)Relaxation experiments. For this purpose, hazelnuts with/without shell (air- roasted) were kept in a water bath at80 °C for 1 and 3 days. Moisture content of the samples was measured using an infrared analyzer and in order toobserve the microstructural changes, Scanning Electron Microscopy images were obtained. NMR T1 (longitudinal)relaxation times of hazelnuts did not show any significant change with storage (p>0.05). Change in the moisturecontents of hazelnuts at the end of 1st and 3rd days were 5.72% and 2.85%, respectively. Moreover, changes in themoisture contents of hazelnuts with shell at the end of 1st and 3rd days were 6.46% and 4.99%, respectively. Thechange in moisture contents was correlated with the T2-(transverse) relaxation times. For the shell-free hazelnutsboth T2 values increased (8.15%, 113.57%) with increasing storage time whereas for the hazelnuts with shells, theincrease in T2 values were less (28.12%, 44.61%). In the study MRI was also used to investigate water and fat distributionin hazelnuts qualitatively and quantitatively. This study is the first study in the literature that used MRI and NMRRelaxometry to investigate water and fat distribution in hazelnuts. Results showed that MR imaging and NMR Relaxationtechniques give promising results to interpret the changes in hazelnut physical properties at different environments.
