NMR-based metabolomics strategies: plants, animals and humans

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful analytical platform employed to address a diversity of issues of research such as in understanding chemical reaction mechanisms and chemical kinetics, and characterization and elucidation of small and macromolecules, among many others. In the last few decades and with the advancement of biotechnology, NMR has been widely employed in metabolomics where it has greatly contributed to the agricultural, veterinary, medicinal and pharmacological fields in the search for biomarkers of diseases. This Tutorial Review addresses the principal steps (sample preparation, acquisition and processing of spectra, data analysis and biomarker discovery) and methodologies used in NMR-based metabolomics applied for pointing to key metabolites of diseases.