AbstractPhosphorus‐containing metabolites in normal human liver have been quantitated non‐invasively with31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy using surface coils. The location of the volume of interest (VOI) was defined by1H magnetic resonance imaging. Subsequently, a modified three‐dimensional localization technique (ISIS) was used to acquire31P magnetic resonance spectra from the VOI. To account for partial saturation produced by rapid signal averaging, the spin/lattice relaxation times (T1) of all hepatic phosphorus resonances were measured. The corrected resonance integrals were used to derive absolute molar concentrations for the following hepatic metabolites (mmol/kg wet weight): ATP, 2.0; inorganic phosphate, 2.1; phosphodiesters, 5.4; and phosphomonoesters, 0.9. These values are compared with previously reported values for humans using freeze‐clamping techniques, and provide a basis for comparison with studies of hepatic disease in this lab