Abstract:
In order to study the moisture variations in midrib of tobacco leaves during flue-curing, low-field nuclear magnetic resonance(LF-NMR) was used to determine the content and state of moisture, and the results were compared with those determined by a conventional oven method. The results showed that: 1) The moisture in midrib of fresh green tobacco leaves included bound water
T21(1-10 ms) and free water
T22(100-1 000 ms). During flue-curing, the signal amplitude of free water
M22 and total water
M20 decreased, and the signal amplitude of bound water
M21 increased first then decreased. 2) Linear regression analysis indicated that the total signal amplitude of inversion spectrum positively correlated to the moisture content and dry weight base moisture content at a significant degree (coefficient of determination
R2=0.997 9,
R2=0.998 3,
P<0.01). The moisture content in leaves during flue-curing could be obtained by the regression equation obtained. 3) Comparing with the oven method, the stability of LF-NMR was better. LF-NMR is thus suitable for the rapid and accurate determination of moisture contents in midrib of tobacco leaves during flue-curing.