Mineral Content and Phytochemical Composition of Avocado var. Hass Grown Using Sustainable Agriculture Practices in Ecuador

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This manuscript entitled ‘‘Effects of Donor Ages on the Growth of Cutting Seedlings Propagated from Ancient Platycladus orientalis"; could be good for publication in Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).

This may be interesting, but some important points need to be resolved. Importantly, a study must provide a critical analysis of the data. In other words, you must assess whether specific data published really stand up to scientific scrutiny. In order to achieve the above, you must clearly define your specific aims and objectives. So in your study you must develop a critical appraisal of the state of the art. This is an essential element of any article. There are important scientific questions (both conceptual and methodological) which need to be addressed with the primary studies. A study must highlight this. The introduction, which is written in clear language, covers a number of relevant issues. Information are noteworthy, and not are correct supported by similar results from the specialty (WOS: 000232584300013, WOS: 000244133900015). Try to rewrite the abstract and conclusions, I also recommend the nuance of the introduction, the way of working is not very well explained, the procedure is tedious and unsustainable. For this reason, I recommend that the authors try to use more sustainable methodologies, the interpretation of the results can be improved/ reformulated,

Author Response

Comment: This manuscript entitled ‘‘Effects of Donor Ages on the Growth of Cutting Seedlings Propagated from Ancient Platycladus orientalis"; could be good for publication in Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This may be interesting, but some important points need to be resolved. Importantly, a study must provide a critical analysis of the data. In other words, you must assess whether specific data published really stand up to scientific scrutiny. In order to achieve the above, you must clearly define your specific aims and objectives. So in your study you must develop a critical appraisal of the state of the art. This is an essential element of any article. There are important scientific questions (both conceptual and methodological) which need to be addressed with the primary studies. A study must highlight this. The introduction, which is written in clear language, covers a number of relevant issues. Information are noteworthy, and not are correct supported by similar results from the specialty (WOS: 000232584300013, WOS: 000244133900015). Try to rewrite the abstract and conclusions, I also recommend the nuance of the introduction, the way of working is not very well explained, the procedure is tedious and unsustainable. For this reason, I recommend that the authors try to use more sustainable methodologies, the interpretation of the results can be improved/ reformulated,

Reply: Dear reviewer, once we have checked the comments sent by you, we realized that they do not correspond to our article titled “Mineral Content and Phytochemical Composition of Avocado var. Hass Grown by Sustainable Agriculture Practices in Ecuador”. In fact, the first lines of your comment start with the following: This manuscript entitled ‘‘Effects of Donor Ages on the Growth of Cutting Seedlings Propagated from Ancient Platycladus orientalis"; could be good for publication in Plants (ISSN 2223-7747); and all comments are referred to that manuscript.

Reviewer 2 Report

Topic of the manuscript is interesting. New information is provided.

Paper is fairly written.

English should be checked carefully.

Results are presented fairly.

Discussion needs to focus on the obtained results, not just comparison to the literature.

What are the achievements of applied cultivation method?

General remarks:

Text needs revision in some parts.

 Abbreviations must be given in full when first mentioned in the text.

 Some description of variety Hass should be presented in introduction or in material and methods.

What are the advantages of growing Hass variety over other varieties?

 Tables should be place near text where they are mentioned for the first time.

 Tables 2,5 and 6 should be better positioned as they could not be seen properly.

 Units should be corrected in some places, e.a. 100 g^-1

Lines 82-86: rephrase as …. this information (in line 82) and …this type of information (line 85) are repeating. It is a matter of style writing.

 Line 157: Table 4, it is not clear: results as expressed in % (g 100 g^-1 pulp)

 Lines 392-396: text in these lines is repeating through the text. I think that it should be rephrased in a single sentence pointing out the need for sustainable production of avocado

In general, section 3.7. Final remarks should be in 2 parts.

Most of text should be implemented in discussion.

 The new and most significant results should be underlined in the Conclusions section.  

 Lines 620-623 should be deleted as it is already known. Moreover, it does not come from the results of the present study.

Author Response

Comment: English should be checked carefully.

Reply: English has been checked.

Comment: Discussion needs to focus on the obtained results, not just comparison to the literature. What are the achievements of applied cultivation method?

Reply: The discussion has been modified adding information to highlight the effect of the sustainable practices in addition to the comparison of the results with other studies.

Comment: Abbreviations must be given in full when first mentioned in the text.

Reply: All abbreviations have been checked to write the full name the first time that they are mentioned in the text of the manuscript.

Comment: Some description of variety Hass should be presented in introduction or in material and methods. What are the advantages of growing Hass variety over other varieties?

Reply: Information about the characteristics of the Hass variety as well their advantages and importance has been added to the introduction.

Comment: Tables should be place near text where they are mentioned for the first time. Tables 2,5 and 6 should be better positioned as they could not be seen properly.

Reply: In the original version tables were grouped together because the page format was horizontal so they can fit well but looks like when the manuscript was upload to the journal system, it changed all pages to vertical. In the current version tables has been moved after they are mentioned in the text and also horizontal page format has been applied again to fit them well. 

Comment: Units should be corrected in some places, e.a. 100 g^-1

Reply: Units has been checked and the mistakes has been corrected.

Comment: Lines 82-86: rephrase as …. this information (in line 82) and …this type of information (line 85) are repeating. It is a matter of style writing.

Reply: the sentence was rephrased.

Comment: Line 157: Table 4, it is not clear: results as expressed in % (g 100 g^-1 pulp)

Reply: It has been corrected the mistake and pointed that the results were expressed as percentage.

Comment: Lines 392-396: text in these lines is repeating through the text. I think that it should be rephrased in a single sentence pointing out the need for sustainable production of avocado

Reply: The text has been modified and rephrased.

Comment: In general, section 3.7. Final remarks should be in 2 parts. Most of text should be implemented in discussion.

Reply: the section “Final remarks” has been modified according to the reviewer´s suggestion.

Comment: The new and most significant results should be underlined in the Conclusions section.  

Reply: The conclusion has been rewritten.

Comment: Lines 620-623 should be deleted as it is already known. Moreover, it does not come from the results of the present study.

Reply: these lines has been deleted.

Reviewer 3 Report

In the submitted manuscript, the authors demonstrated that fertigation, microorganisms and their combination improved the nutritional value of Avocado fruits. Sustainable agriculture practices are an actual and interesting topic, so it would be intersting to know some agronomic parameters such as yield, texture and size.

There are also many point ca be improved:

-the tables 2, 3, 4 are not completely visible

- the abbreviations in rows 126 and 139 are not specified

- linolelaidic acid is given in Table 4 but not discussed. Is its presence in avocados mentioned in the references? or could it form during extraction and saponification processes? or could it form during extraction and saponification processes?

- In the proximate composition section dry matter and moisture content determination methods are reported but their meaning are the same.

- In the paper both PCA and Pearson correlation are reported, in my opinion only one statistical analysis is sufficient.

Author Response

Comment: In the submitted manuscript, the authors demonstrated that fertigation, microorganisms and their combination improved the nutritional value of Avocado fruits. Sustainable agriculture practices are an actual and interesting topic, so it would be interesting to know some agronomic parameters such as yield, texture and size.

Reply: Agronomic variables has been added as the reviewer suggested, and they were also discussed in the manuscript.

Comment: the tables 2, 3, 4 are not completely visible

Reply: Tables 2,3 and 4 for were placed in horizontal page format in the original version to fit well but looks like when the manuscript was upload to the journal system, it changed all pages to vertical. In the current version tables has been put in horizontal page format to fit them well. 

Comment: the abbreviations in rows 126 and 139 are not specified

Reply: the abbreviations of AA and DW has been specified.

Comment: linolelaidic acid is given in Table 4 but not discussed. Is its presence in avocados mentioned in the references? or could it form during extraction and saponification processes? or could it form during extraction and saponification processes?

Reply: This acid has not influence of the saponification process. The linolelaidic acid is an isomer of the linoleic acid; in this case, the avocado oil was extracted with continuous extraction process (soxhlet) with the use of boiling temperature and solvent, for which its content could be slightly increased. This information has been mentioned in the discussion.  

There is not data about this fatty acid in avocado studies but some information has been added comparing the result with another reported in durian (Durio graveolens) which is another tropical fruit where this acid has been reported.

Comment: In the proximate composition section dry matter and moisture content determination methods are reported but their meaning are the same.

Reply: The mistake has been corrected and the methodology has been clarified.

Comment: In the paper both PCA and Pearson correlation are reported, in my opinion only one statistical analysis is sufficient.

Reply: We want to remain both analysis because the PCA was done for each group of variables (i.e. proximal, mineral, antioxidants and fatty acids) and this analysis took into consideration the data of all variables of each category and the contrasts are generated by all the observations. While the Pearson correlation gave the correlation between two pairs of variables and the correlation was done to see the relationship between proximal variables and minerals, especially ash (which is associated with the mineral content of the pulp), and on the other hand between antioxidants and oleic acids to know the relationships among these compounds.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

the authors did not take into account the recommendations of the reviews

Reviewer 2 Report

Manuscript has been improved in accordance to the reviewers suggestions.