A novel non-destructive manner for quantitative determination of plumpness of live Eriocheir sinensis using low-field nuclear magnetic resonance

The present study investigated the quantitative and non-destructive determination of Eriocheir sinensis' plumpness during four mature stages using low field-nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-H-1 NMR). Normalized lipid volume of live E. sinensis was calculated from Sept to Dec using 3D LF-H-1 nuclear magnetic imaging (MRI) and the validity of proposed technique was compared and verified with traditional Soxhlet extraction and live dissection method, respectively. The results showed the plumpness of female E. sinensis was higher than that of male ones from Sept to Dec and the highest plumpness of male and female E. sinensis reached 99,436.44 and 109,207.15 mm(3) in Oct. The normalized lipid volume of live male and female E. sinensis had a positive correlation with lipid content. This proposed method with short assay time, favorable selectivity, and accuracy demonstrated its application potential in grading regulation and quality evaluation of live E. sinensis.