Olive Oil as seen by NMR and chemometrics, Spectroscopy

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance is a branch of spectroscopy that is based on the fact that many atomicnuclei may be oriented by a strong magnetic field and will absorb radiofrequency radiation at characteristic frequencies. The parameters that can be measured on the resulting spectral lines (line positions, intensities, line-widths, multiplicities and transients in timedependent experiments) can be interpreted in terms of molecular structure, conformation, molecular motion and other rate processes. To the chemist, the usefulness of NMR stems in large measure from the finding that any given isotope (e.g. 1H, 13C, 31P …) in a different chemical environment gives rise to distinct chemically-shifted spectral lines. Therefore, it is possible to observe a specific isotope in a particular environment even in complex structures, both in solution and in the solid state. Different NMR experiments and equipment, such as high-resolution NMR, low-resolution NMR and Magnetic Resonance Imaging, yield different information. With highresolution NMR one can perform both qualitative and quantitative analyses of samples in solution, which can be used for structural studies and compositional analyses.