Amaranth Seed Polyphenol, Fatty Acid and Amino Acid Profile

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I’ve read with attention the paper of Procopet and Oroian that is potentially of interest. The background and aim of the study have been clearly defined. The methodology applied is overall correct, the results are reliable and adequately discussed. I’ve only some minor comments: The introduction is a bit long. The discussion section should include a short list of the possible limitation of the authors methodology and the research perspective after this finding. All over the text there are some typos and the formatting rules have not always strictly followed. By the way, this is a very good paper.

Author Response

Thank you for your comments. We reduced the introduction and the text was corrected as you suggested. We added a paragraph with Limitations and Future Perspectives.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors 

After reviewing your manuscript, I must say that novelty of the research is not the best, and the manuscript needs a thorough revision. Herein, I have the following comments, suggestions and questions: 

1. The text does not show which type (species) of the plant did you use. Additionally, it is not mentioned how was the identification of plant done.
2. In line 58, you need a citation here (reference)
3. Table 1, No. 13 and 14 are the same.... Please check and correct
4. In section 2.2.4. where the HPLC conditions are discussed, it is not mentioned what was the mobile phase composition and ratio, only reference was given there. I also suggest to show the HPLC chromatogram as a figure. 
5. In section 2.2.6. it is not clear by what was the pH adjusted to 2.2. 
6. TFC is usually discussed as Total Flavonoid Content, not as "flavone"
7. result of TFC was given by the unit mgQE/L, it is usually given by mgQE/g. 
8. Please write "Table" not "Tab" for all tables and be consistent
9. Lines 230-234 should belong to the Introduction, not to discussion
10. In table three (Tab 3) the number shows 1204.39 as the total  amount of polyphenols, this is not the SUM of all above amounts. Please check. 
11. In table 4, what is the unit of the poly unsaturated fatty acids? 
12. Line 259 shows citation for "He et al. [3,34]", but reference No. 3 is NOT for the mentioned author. Please check. 
13. Table 5, Proline amino acid is shown twice with different amounts. Please check well and correct. 
14. In the references, please make sure that all years should be in bold as per the guidelines of the journal (examples: ref 12, 41,..). 
15. English is not the best in this manuscript: there are many English mistakes, grammatical mistakes and misprints. Here I point out some and I also suggest that the whole manuscript should be revised: Line 10: ration should be ratio. line 9: should be: In this paper, the extraction of ........and extraction time, were studied. Please note that there are many such mistakes (lines: 89, 190, 195, 196, 247, 253, ... and so on). 
16. When you are listing things, please use the comma and "and" before the last item
17. In English, it is "poly" rather than "poli", please correct
18. It is better to use "according to" rather than "Due to" in many places (example line 46, ..)
19. Please correct the misspells like in line 102: transferred not transfer, line 111, after it should be after that, line 169 flour instead of four, line 269, named should be namely: ....., line 221: chromatographic not "chromatografic",......and so on
20. Some of the names of the compounds are not correct: Octadecandionoate acid does not exist (lines 250, ....) the same as in table 4 the item 1, 9 and 11 should be given their correct name. 
21. Please rephrase lines 277-280 so as to be understandable. Best regards.

Author Response

Dear reviewer thank you for your valuable comments. In our opinion the novelty of our work rises from the extraction optimization made on the amaranth seed using an extraction process with 4^th parameters, one of them (ultra turrax speed) has not been used in the literature till now. Ultra-turrax is a promising assisted extraction technique because is quick method, is not involve any thermal treatment which leads to a reduction of costs (see the high prices for electricity and gas in European Union today).

1. The text does not show which type (species) of the plant did you use. Additionally, it is not mentioned how was the identification of plant done.

We introduced a phrase in the section 2.1.

1. In line 58, you need a citation here (reference)

We introduced a citation as you suggested.

1. Table 1, No. 13 and 14 are the same.... Please check and correct

We correct as you suggested.

1. In section 2.2.4. where the HPLC conditions are discussed, it is not mentioned what was the mobile phase composition and ratio, only reference was given there. I also suggest to show the HPLC chromatogram as a figure. 

The section was improved.

1. In section 2.2.6. it is not clear by what was the pH adjusted to 2.2. 

The solution was adjusted with 15% trichloroacetic acid (TCA)

1. TFC is usually discussed as Total Flavonoid Content, not as "flavone"

Thank you for your comment, we correct in the whole manuscript

1. result of TFC was given by the unit mgQE/L, it is usually given by mgQE/g. 

Dear reviewer, we expressed the results in mgQE/L for establishing the suitable extraction condition and after it, when we reached the optimum condition we calculated the individual phenolics concentration expressing on grams of amaranth seeds.

1. Please write "Table" not "Tab" for all tables and be consistent

Thank you for your comment, we correct in the whole manuscript

1. Lines 230-234 should belong to the Introduction, not to discussion

Thank you for your comment, we moved as you suggested.

1. In table three (Tab 3) the number shows 1204.39 as the total  amount of polyphenols, this is not the SUM of all above amounts. Please check. 

Thank you for your comment, we corrected the sum.

1. In table 4, what is the unit of the poly unsaturated fatty acids? 

Thank you for your comment, we corrected  as µg/g amaranth

1. Line 259 shows citation for "He et al. [3,34]", but reference No. 3 is NOT for the mentioned author. Please check. 

Thank you for your comment, we correct

1. Table 5, Proline amino acid is shown twice with different amounts. Please check well and correct. 

Thank you for your comment, we correct

 

1. In the references, please make sure that all years should be in bold as per the guidelines of the journal (examples: ref 12, 41,..). 

We correct as you suggested. We introduced the references with the Mendeley, it seems that it has a problem.

 

1. English is not the best in this manuscript: there are many English mistakes, grammatical mistakes and misprints. Here I point out some and I also suggest that the whole manuscript should be revised: Line 10: ration should be ratio. line 9: should be: In this paper, the extraction of ........and extraction time, were studied. Please note that there are many such mistakes (lines: 89, 190, 195, 196, 247, 253, ... and so on). 

We correct as you suggested.

 

1. When you are listing things, please use the comma and "and" before the last item

 

We correct as you suggested.

1. In English, it is "poly" rather than "poli", please correct

We correct as you suggested.

1. It is better to use "according to" rather than "Due to" in many places (example line 46, ..)

We correct as you suggested.

 

1. Please correct the misspells like in line 102: transferred not transfer, line 111, after it should be after that, line 169 flour instead of four, line 269, named should be namely: ....., line 221: chromatographic not "chromatografic",......and so on

We correct as you suggested.

 

1. Some of the names of the compounds are not correct: Octadecandionoate acid does not exist (lines 250, ....) the same as in table 4 the item 1, 9 and 11 should be given their correct name. 

We correct as you suggested.

 

1. Please rephrase lines 277-280 so as to be understandable. Best regards.

We correct as you suggested.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors, 

Thanks for your corrections. 

I feel that only one thing should be corrected: Starting line 275, the amino acid tryptophan appears in both the positive and the negative deviation!

All the best

Author Response

Thank you for your comment. We correct the sentence.