Method for investigating the fate of a test compound or the stateof a biological system by means of nmr of hyperpolarised nmr active nuclei

The invention is concerned with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), particularly NMR spectroscopy. It provides hyperpolarisation methods offering enhanced sensitivity of detection over conventional NMR for studying the fate of a test compound in a biological system. The methods are particularly suitable for studying metabolism and toxicity of drugs. The resulting NMR sensitivity increase is advantageous in two key aspects of NMR detection: test compounds can be detected at lower concentrations and substantial time saving can be achieved in cases where extensive averaging is conventionaly employed to increase the signal to noise ratio of the corresponding NMR spectra. The methods can be used for studios that were not practical or not possible using conventional NMR.