CHAPTER 7: NMR in Environmental and Nutritional Research

Small molecular species represent environmental/nutritional exposures as well as downstream mediators and their modulation reflects consequences of those exposures; metabolome analyses are therefore critical in efforts to characterise the internal chemical milieu to complement genomic profiles. As in other areas of health research, NMR spectroscopy is a primary platform for biofluid analysis, benefitting from good reproducibility and robustness, wide metabolome coverage, and the capacity to provide quantitative data. In this chapter, we highlight some of the main applications of NMR in environmental and nutritional research related to human health, which include analysis of dietary components, to molecular phenotyping, and structure elucidation of novel metabolites.