Monosodium L-glutamate monohydrate, a multiple oxygen site (eight) compound, is used to demonstrate that a combination of high-resolution solid-state NMR spectroscopic techniques opens up new possibilities for 17O as a nuclear probe of biomolecules. Eight oxygen sites have been resolved by double rotation (DOR) and multiple quantum (MQ) NMR experiments, despite the 17O chemical shifts lying within a narrow shift range of