Protein content and amino acids profile in 10 cultivars of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.) nut from China

As a traditional food and medicine source, ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.) nut is popularly consumed in East Asia. The aim of this work is to characterize protein content and amino acids profile in 10 ginkgo nut cultivars, named successively as no. 1 to no. 10. There were observed differences among the cultivars with respect to the contents of protein and amino acids, except Cys. The no. 6 cultivar presented the highest protein content (22.1 g/100 g DW), while the no. 9 had the lowest (16.2 g/100 g DW). The contents of EAA and NEAA were revealed to vary in the range of 14.3–26.2 and 21.4–41.1 g/100 g protein, respectively. The most abundant EAA was Leu, and the first limiting amino acid was Lys. The level of Arg was attractive, especially in the no. 5 cultivar (1741 mg/100 g DW) where it is comparable to hazelnut and pistachio. As confirmed by AAS and EAAI, the no. 5 cultivar presented the best amino acids profile and protein quality among these cultivars. These results have relevance to the scientific development and application of ginkgo nuts in the food industry.


11-Feb-2019
Dear Dr Zhou On behalf of the Editors, I am pleased to inform you that your Manuscript RSOS-181571 entitled "Protein content and amino acids profile in ten cultivars of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.) nut from China" has been accepted for publication in Royal Society Open Science subject to minor revision in accordance with the referee suggestions. Please find the referees' comments at the end of this email.
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Royal Society Open Science openscience@royalsociety.org on behalf of Professor Kevin Padian (Subject Editor) openscience@royalsociety.org Associate Editor Comments to Author: Both reviewers find merit in publishing your paper, though they have a number of recommendations for improvement. Please ensure you respond to these queries -both by incorporating the requested changes and in your point-by-point response to the reviewers. If you do not include an change, you must fully address this via a scientific rebuttal in the response.
Reviewer comments to Author: Reviewer: 1 Comments to the Author(s) The article (Manuscript ID RSOS-181571) on "Protein content and amino acids profile in ten cultivars of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.) nut from China" is relevant to publication in Royal Society Open Science after minor correction.
Submitted for review work on "Protein content and amino acids profile in ten cultivars of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.) nut from China" in an interesting and substantively as well as statistically correct way describes the amino acid composition of ginkgo biloba nuts, their nutritional value and compares the content of individual amino acids as well as amino acid groups in the amino acid profile of nuts of 10 tested ginkgo biloba varieties. The research material, the methodology of the conducted research and the presentation of the results do not raise objections of the reviewer. However, in the Introduction part of the article there is a lack of broader information regarding the research conducted so far by other authors in the analysis of the amino acid composition of ginkgo biloba nuts and their nutritional value. Also, some more details in a discussion should be added. The work has a high cognitive value. Detailed comments: Title: Probably a sentence of "Insert the title of your article here" is not necessary? Page 2, line 44: "amino acids" is repeated Page 3, line 2: there is a mistake in a word "degradation" Results and Discussion Page 4 line 36: what was CP content reported by Deng [18]? It needs better information. Page 4 lines 7-8: a discussion needs deeper explanation Page 4, line 5: there is "Pre" but shall be "Pro" There are errors in the spelling of the word " Comments to the Author(s) This manuscript describes protein content and amino acids profile in ten cultivars of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.) nut from China. The manuscript will be acceptable after minor revision.

18-Feb-2019
Dear Dr Zhou, I am pleased to inform you that your manuscript entitled "Protein content and amino acids profile in ten cultivars of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.) nut from China" is now accepted for publication in Royal Society Open Science.
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