Bioactive Compounds Assessment in Six Moroccan Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) Varieties Grown in Two Contrasting Environments
, Abdelhay El Harrak 2, Abderraouf El Antari 3, Lahcen Hssaini 1, Hafida Hanine 4, Mohamed El Fechtali 1 and Abdelghani Nabloussi 1,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 3)
Dear Authors,
the manuscript was improved, but still several draw backs remained. To obtain studies over more than one harvesting period are difiicult to perform, especially for PhD students. However, the overall quality is still not sufficient for publication. I strongly recommend to add at least measurements of the protein content, which can be accomplished very easy and fast.
The introduction and quality of language have to be improved further, especially the introduction is still on a very poor level.
Some minor remarks:
- Fig. 1 C: 2 a second y-axis could be added
- Fig. 2: the values are the average of all six varieties? what does the small letter mean? why didn't you show values of single varieties?
- correlation between free-radical scavenging activity and TPC, TC and TFC should be added
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 1,
We would like to thank you for your valuable comments and recommendations which we have taken into account while editing and polishing the manuscript. The modifications made accordingly are highlighted in yellow.
Hereafter are provided our point-to-point responses to your comments.
- Comment 1: The manuscript was improved, but still several draw backs remained. To obtain studies over more than one harvesting period are difiicult to perform, especially for PhD students. However, the overall quality is still not sufficient for publication. I strongly recommend to add at least measurements of the protein content, which can be accomplished very easy and fast.
The introduction and quality of language have to be improved further, especially the introduction is still on a very poor level.
Response: In this study, 13 parameters have been studied which represent the most important traits for the evaluation of nutritional quality of rapeseed oil. As this article is the first one which describes the quality traits of Moroccan rapeseed varieties, we were focused to analyze only the oil quality parameters representing the final product for human consumption. Regarding the protein content, we would like to remind you that we are currently investigating the parameters related to seed-cake quality (total protein content, total carbohydrate content, some essential amino-acids content, NDF, ADL and digestibility in vitro). The results of that ongoing study will be submitted for publication very soon. For that, we kindly ask you to understand our vision. Thank you again for your comment and understanding.
The introduction has been revised as requested and we think that it is improved.
- Comment 2: 1 C: 2 a second y-axis could be added
Response: As requested, a second y axis, corresponding to seed oil content (%), has been added to the figure 1C.
- Comment 3: 2: the values are the average of all six varieties? what does the small letter mean? why didn't you show values of single varieties?
Response: Yes, the values shown in Fig. 2 are the average of all six varieties studied. This is to exhibit the differences between the two contrasting environments for the overall varieties average of those five biochemical parameters. The small superscript letters (a & b) show the significant difference between the two environments, for each parameter, at p < 0.05 according to Duncan’s multiple range test. This information was included in the title of this Figure. Regarding the values of single varieties, please note that they are displayed in Table 3.
- Comment 4: correlation between free-radical scavenging activity and TPC, TC and TFC should be added.
Response: Done, a new table (Table 4) was added in the section ‘3.3 Biochemical analysis’ to show the correlation between free-radical scavenging activity and TPC, TC and TFC. Also a paragraph was included to present and discuss the obtained results.
Reviewer 2 Report (New Reviewer)
This is a well-written and valuable contribution to the field.
Kindly remove the semicolon sign in L24: comprising; seed yield
Please, check if the following wording is correct in L29: “Also, variety and variety x site interaction”
Please, be more specific about where you observed those changes L30: “the varietal factor generated a variation…”
Line 158: Did you get a single phase after the stirring time?
Line 396: Meaning of ATZ and DYT in figure 2
Line 405: Table 5 I suggest you use the table footer to write the abbreviations TPC, IA, TC, etc
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 2,
We would like to thank you for your valuable comments and recommendations which we have taken into account while editing and polishing the manuscript. The modifications made accordingly are highlighted in sky-blue.
Hereafter are provided our point-to-point responses to your comments.
- Comment 1: Kindly remove the semicolon sign in L24: comprising; seed yield…
Response: Done, the semicolon has been removed as requested.
- Comment 2: Please, check if the following wording is correct in L29: “Also, variety and variety x site interaction”
Response: According to your remark, we have updated the “variety x site interaction” to “variety by site interaction” to be clearer.
- Comment 3: Please, be more specific about where you observed those changes L30: “the varietal factor generated a variation…”
Response: Kindly note that we are talking about the varietal variation observed over both growing environments. This information has been specified in the revised sentence. Also te sentence was rephrased to be clearer.
- Comment 4: Line 158: Did you get a single phase after the stirring time?
Response: After stirring, we got two phases and the supernatant collected is the one filtered through Whatman filter paper. We have updated the sentence in order to reply to your remark.
- Comment 5: Line 396: Meaning of ATZ and DYT in figure 2
Response: We have replaced the abbreviation ATZ with Sidi Allal Tazi and DYT with Douyet.
- Comment 6: Line 405: Table 5 I suggest you use the table footer to write the abbreviations TPC, IA, TC, etc
Response: As suggested, the abbreviation of each parameter has been written in the table footer of Table 6 of the revised manuscript (former Table 5) as we included another table (matrix of correlation) as requested by Reviewer 1.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 3)
Dear Authors,
the manuscript was improved, e.g. correlations analysis was added. However, since too many major drawbakcs remain, the overall quality is still insufficient for publication in a high impact journal. I strongly recommend to add at least measurements of the protien content; otherwise, I have to reject this article.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 1,
Once again, we would like to thank you for reviewing our revised manuscript ‘agronomy-2161384.R1’.
As you recommend, the parameter ‘Protein content’ has been now included and analyzed in the revised manuscript ‘agronomy-2161384.R2’ herein attached. All the incorporated text and illustration are highlighted in yellow.
amendements are highlighted in yellow.
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript ‘Lipochemical and phenolic assessment of six Moroccan rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) varieties grown in two contrasting environments’ by Guirrou et al. focused on functional bioactive components of rapeseed mustard in Morocco. The manuscript is well-written. I have a few observations on the manuscript which may be useful for further improvement;
Abstract
Line-19-20: Apart from their ‘00’ or canola quality??? Please re-write the sentence clearly.
Line 33-34: Please add a line of future implications of the work.
Introduction:
Please mention a line of introduction to lipochemicals in the introduction. Lipochemical related to living organisms. Authors may consider replacing it with bioactive components.
Line 43: Are the authors mean to say both rapeseed and canola are the same? Canola is the modified version of rapeseed without/less Erucic acid, however, rapeseed contains glucosinolates and Erucic acid in the twigs. Need clarification on lines 78-80.
Materials and Methods
Line 114: Exact date may be replaced with crop duration.
Line 116-117: Plot size is also not required.
Line 118-120: may be deleted.
Line 120: crops were harvested
Line 128: please delete Shortly afterward
Line 130: Please mention the make (Company), City, and Country of all the instruments/equipments and consumables used in the study
Line 151: please delete experimentally
Line 152: Wij’s reagent
Line 156: Described by??? Please mention the citation Singleton et al. Please revise throughout the text (Lines 164, 170, 182 etc...).
Line 207: Please mention the replications performed here clearly. The authors have taken 3 replications with 3 determinations or 9 replications. Please clarify and update in the figures and tables accordingly.
Results and discussion
Line 233: different differences???please modify to significant differences
Figures are not upto the mark. It gives a poor look to a well-written manuscript. Please present the figures more scientifically removing the grid lines, smooth color scheme, and along with DMRT values (alphabets) on the bars.
Table -3 may be deleted.
Figure 3. Legends overlapped..Please provide higher-resolution figures with clear legends.
Conclusion
Line 409-411: May be deleted
Please re-write the conclusion with the most significant finding of the study as a take-home message and recommendation and the future implications of the study.
References
The references are well organized however, please cross-check the referencing pattern once again. The year of references 10, 15, 17, 18, and 40 are not in bold. Please check the journal pattern.
This is a well-written manuscript. Hence, I recommend acceptance after minor revision.
Good luck with the revision.
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear authors,
your contribution focusing on lipochemical and phenolic assessment of six Moroccan rapeseed varieties grown in two contrasting environments seems to be scientifically interesting. The introduction chapter provides good background information for the tasks of this paper and the motivation for this work is well explained. However, the other parts of the manuscript should be clarified and rewritten according to the results presented. This work is full of oversight and mistakes, so it is very difficult to follow the results. The presentation and discussion of results are divergent. Numerous results discussed in the text differ from the presentation in tables and figures. The author’s responsibility is to carefully read and correct the manuscript before submitting it!
Some of the remarks the authors should pay attention to:
Abstract (line 26-28) authors stated: “The results displayed significant differences (p<0.001) between the two sites for all abovementioned traits, except IA and TPC.” According to the results given in Table 3 environmental effect p-value for TPC is <0.001, so the only exception is IA with p value of 0.225 (Table 2). Further (line 28-29) authors stated: “Also, variety and variety x site interaction had a significant effect on all the parameters studied, except IA, IP and IR.” But according to the results given in Table 3 TPC is also an exception.
What is mean the acronym VI mentioned in the abstract “94.1 to 100.0 meqO2/kg for VI” (line 30) but, nowhere in the manuscript. According to the results given in Table 2. values “94.1 to 100.0” correspond to iodine values expressed in g I2/100g, while unit “meqO2/kg” corresponds to peroxide index!!!
Methods: Total phenolic content and total flavonoid content. The authors only state the volume of “extract” (line 157 and 165). Used extraction procedure should be added/described.
Line 179: Change “tank” with “cuvette”.
Identification of fatty acid must be added in 2.4.6. Fatty acid composition. A used standard must be declared.
Results for seed yield and seed oils content are given in Table 2, not in table 1 as authors stated (line 217 and 233)!
Line 237-239: Authors should clearly refer to the results and indicate where they are present in the manuscript (Table, Figure). Furthermore, results in the text must correlate with that given in Tabele/Figure.
Line 291: Change “TFC” with “TPC”
The fatty acid composition of investigated samples must be shown in the study. The authors state that set of 13 parameters was analyzed including fatty acid composition (line13 -26), but these results are not present or discussed. Fatty acid composition is one of the major parameters related to the quality of rapeseed oil. Furthermore, this result is necessary for confirmation of the so-called “00” rapeseed variety, i.e. the zero erucic acid variety. Also, it should be explained why only the ω6/ω3 ratio was investigated rather than the content of each/major fatty acid.
Line 382. Table 3 should be Table 4!
The authors stated (line 385) “PC1 was defined by IA (0.810)” but the results shown in table 3 are different!
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear Authors,
the topic of your manuscript sounds interesting and a few methods were used to characterize rapeseed cultivars released in Morocco. However, only samples from two locations and a single year/harvest period were analyzed. Usually, trials for quality evaluation of cultivars are performed for at least two harvest periods, three harvest periods are standard. Furthermore, two locations are quite low as well, which reduces the validity of this manuscript strongly. Summing up, the data and thus quality of the manuscript are insufficient for publication. I strongly recommend to add at least data from a second year.
Under „2.1. Plant Material and sampling” the two locations were and crop management were described, but some important facts are missing. Beside the average annual rainfall, the rainfall and temperature for cropping year 2019/2020 should be added (e.g. on monthly basis in the supplement). Furthermore, more details regarding crop management should be added (.e.g fertilization and crop protection). How is the soil quality of both locations?
Parameters describing the nutritional quality are partially missing and should be added. I strongly recommend to add results regarding protein content, which is an important factor for usage of by-products like press-cakes. The quality of language is very poor and has to be improved strongly.
