Comparing 1H‐NMR imaging and relaxation mapping of German white asparagus from five different cultivation sites

Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and complementary analytical techniques were used to address the question whether white asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) from different cultivation sites in Germany can be distinguished on the basis of NMR relaxation times. Five locations with contrasting soil properties and composition within the two asparagus‐cultivation regions Rhineland and Lower Franconia were selected for this project. For the first time, entire asparagus plants in their authentic soil environment excavated directly from the original harvest site were imaged by the NMR technique. However, they could not be employed for determination of relaxation times of spears in situ, because of artifacts arising from soil properties. Instead, market‐ready asparagus spears and freshly prepared spear saps from the five locations were used to acquire MRI data sets with different (slow and fast) imaging methods and to compute spatially resolved distributions (maps) of T₁, T₂, and T₂* relaxation times. Comparison of the data for pith, vascular tissue, and peel of the spears yielded only marginal, if any, differences in T₁, T₂, and T₂* between the specimens from the five locations, which were not sufficient for an unambiguous region‐related distinction. More pronounced differences in T₁, T₂, and T₂* were visible for the spear saps, allowing a clear distinction between individual specimens for each of the two cultivation regions. The results are discussed in terms of an application potential for correlated NMR relaxation times of tissue saps for future geographic authentication of agricultural produces.