Variation in chemical composition and macrostructure of
tomato tissue led to differences in water proton relaxation times
and contrast in MR images (Musse et al., 2009b). In addition,
changes in the relaxation times depended on tissue type during
ripening (Musse et al., 2009a). However, open cavities were
observed between the locular gel and pericarp in some samples.
Therefore, quantitative image analysis was performed only on pericarp
to avoid the interference of the open cavity in locular tissue.
A region of interest (ROI) corresponding to the tissue of interest
(pericarp) was defined for images of each sample (Fig. 2).