Relationship of molecular mobility of water with floral malformation in mango as assessed by nuclear magnetic resonance

Abstract Spin lattice relaxation time ( T 1 ) was measured for various healthy and malformed parts of mango by proton pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) at 20 MHz and at room temperature. The T 1 values were high in malformed parts compared with healthy parts, indicating that the molecular mobility of water is relatively higher in malformed parts. However, in stem parts near to malformed panicles (1–2 cm), T 1 values were significantly higher compared with other parts. This indicates that the site of primary infection causing malformation is probably the meristematic region.