ABSTRACT

 MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is widely used for medical diagnosis, which has been recently applied for many sorts of materials. In this article, the applications of MRI for mainly postharvest fruits are described. The MRI maps physical states of water in a fruit and creates a morphological image of the inner structures. Thus, damages and disorder in the fruits can be known. Since, the water status, amount and mobility of cell-associated water closely correlates to metabolism of tissues, the image represents the physiological conditions which affect on the quality of the fruit. The image, especially T₂ image, shows characteristic changes during preservation relating to the degree of mealiness of apple and nectarine fruits, core breakdown of pear fruits and rotting of blueberry fruits. Recently developed 3D-imaging is also a hopeful means for quality evaluation of fruits. Finally, usefulness of dedicated MRI and automated diagnosis of fruits are discussed.