Phytochemical Profile and Antioxidant Properties of Italian Green Tea, a New High Quality Niche Product
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
the paper has enough quality and novelty to merit publication in this journal after some revision. I recomment to check and correct the follwoing points:
1) check writing in the entire manuscript.
2) be consistent in the usage of significant digits.
Author Response
April 15th 2021
To:
Editorial Office
Horticulturae
Dear Editorial Office,
We submit a revised version of the article “Phytochemical profile and antioxidant properties of Italian green tea, a new high quality niche product” by Nicole Mélanie Falla, Sonia Demasi, Matteo Caser and Valentina Scariot for publication in the Special Issue “Nutritional and Antioxidant Value of Horticulturae Products” of the journal “Horticulturae”.
We thank for the comments and suggestions that were very helpful to further improve clarity of the manuscript.
For the preparation of the revised manuscript, we followed all the comments and suggestions of the editor and the reviewers as stated below. We highlighted the main changes to the text by red.
Reviewer 1
Point 1: Check writing in the entire manuscript.
Point 1: The writing in the entire manuscript was checked.
Point 2: Be consistent in the usage of significant digits.
Point 2: we uniformed the digits.
We remain available to clarify any issue or answer that Reviewers or Editors may raise.
Best regards,
Sincerely yours,
Nicole Mélanie Falla
Sonia Demasi
Matteo Caser and
Valentina Scariot
Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences
University of Turin
Largo Paolo Braccini, 2
10095, Grugliasco (TO)
Italy
Phone number: +039-011/6708935
Fax number: +039-011/6708798
e-mail: [email protected]
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This manuscript reported a study to assess the bioactive compounds (polyphenols) and the antioxidant activity of two green tea products produced in Italy. The new products showed promising quality, suggesting the potential to produce green tea in North Italy.
My minor comments relate to the lack of clarity or accuracy in literature review, especially in the introduction section. Here I list a few examples:
Line 11: “There are many different varieties of tea, including green tea …….”. It could be revised as “There are many different processed tea varieties, including green tea …….”; In this way, the variety does not confuse with cultivated variety or botanical variety.
Line 13: “Tea is mainly produced in China and India……”. Yes, China and India are the two major tea producers. However, in many countries (e.g. Sri Lanka, Kenya) tea is more important in their local economy, relative to China and India.
Line 45: Again, “different variety of tea”;
Line 46: “There are many different varieties of teas, and most of them are prepared with the 45 buds of two congeneric species, C. sinensis and C. assamica (Masters) Wight;
It’s generally accepted that C. sinensis var. sinensis and C. s. var. assamica are two major botanical varieties. There is argument that these two should be treated as sub-species, but proposing them as two different species is very rare.
Line 77: “Tea evergreen plant (C. sinensis) originates from the Yunnan Province in southwestern China, then it became popular in India and Japan.”
Tea plant is native to South and Southwest China, the Indian Subcontinent, and Southeast Asia. Please consult “Global_Strategy_Tea_Summary.pdf (croptrust.org)”.
There are a few examples. There are other inaccuracies in the introduction that need to be clarified to improve the overall quality of this manuscript.
Secondly, in the Materials and Methods, there is little information about the genetic identity of the tea plants used in the experiment. It’s well known that the polyphenol content and the antioxidant activity of green tea is significantly affected by genotype, environment and processing method. The authors mentioned that they used tea plant from “La Compagnia del Lago” and “La Camelia d’Oro”. Are they two different genetic varieties or a mixture of different varieties? Any information about where they were introduced? Are they C. sinensis var. sinensis or C. s. var. assamica. Or they are the hybrids between these two botanical varieties?
Comments for author File: 
Comments.docx
Author Response
April 15th 2021
To:
Editorial Office
Horticulturae
Dear Editorial Office,
We submit a revised version of the article “Phytochemical profile and antioxidant properties of Italian green tea, a new high quality niche product” by Nicole Mélanie Falla, Sonia Demasi, Matteo Caser and Valentina Scariot for publication in the Special Issue “Nutritional and Antioxidant Value of Horticulturae Products” of the journal “Horticulturae”.
We thank for the comments and suggestions that were very helpful to further improve clarity of the manuscript.
For the preparation of the revised manuscript, we followed all the comments and suggestions of the editor and the reviewers as stated below. We highlighted the main changes to the text by red.
Reviewer 2
Point 1: Line 11: “There are many different varieties of tea, including green tea …….”. It could be revised as “There are many different processed tea varieties, including green tea …….”; In this way, the variety does not confuse with cultivated variety or botanical variety.
Point 1: Line 11. We modified the sentence as follows:” There are many different processed tea types, including green tea…”
Point 2: Line 13: “Tea is mainly produced in China and India……”. Yes, China and India are the two major tea producers. However, in many countries (e.g. Sri Lanka, Kenya) tea is more important in their local economy, relative to China and India.
Point 2: Line 14. We modified the sentence as follows:” Tea is mainly produced in China and India, followed by Kenya, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Vietnam, however recently…”
Point 3: Line 45: Again, “different variety of tea”.
Point 3: Line 47. We modified the sentence as follows:” There are many different types of teas, and most of them are prepared with the buds of two congeneric…”
Point 4: Line 46: “There are many different varieties of teas, and most of them are prepared with the buds of two congeneric species, C. sinensis and C. assamica (Masters) Wight. It’s generally accepted that C. sinensis var. sinensis and C. s. var. assamica are two major botanical varieties. There is argument that these two should be treated as sub-species, but proposing them as two different species is very rare.
Point 4: Line 46-47. We modified the sentence as follows:” There are many different types of teas, and most of them are prepared with the buds of two botanical varieties, C. sinensis var. sinensis and C. sinensis var. assamica (Masters) Wight.”
Point 5: Line 77: “Tea evergreen plant (C. sinensis) originates from the Yunnan Province in southwestern China, then it became popular in India and Japan.”
Tea plant is native to South and Southwest China, the Indian Subcontinent, and Southeast Asia. Please consult “Global_Strategy_Tea_Summary.pdf (croptrust.org)”.
Point 5: Line 80-81. We modified the sentence as follows:” Tea evergreen plant (C. sinensis) [3,4] is native to South and Southwest China, the Indian Subcontinent, and Southeast Asia…”
Point 6: Secondly, in the Materials and Methods, there is little information about the genetic identity of the tea plants used in the experiment. It’s well known that the polyphenol content and the antioxidant activity of green tea is significantly affected by genotype, environment and processing method. The authors mentioned that they used tea plant from “La Compagnia del Lago” and “La Camelia d’Oro”. Are they two different genetic varieties or a mixture of different varieties? Any information about where they were introduced? Are they C. sinensis var. sinensis or C. s. var. assamica. Or they are the hybrids between these two botanical varieties?
Point 6: Line 102. We added the clarification about the Camellia variety: “Camellia sinensis var. sinensis dried leaves were kindly provided by “La Compagnia del Lago” and “La Camelia d’Oro” plantations…”
Lines 104-106. We modified the sentence as follows:” Seedlings of camellia derived from acclimatization specimen from parks and botanical gardens located in the Lake Maggiore area (i.e. Villa Taranto, Isola Madre and Villa Anelli, Verbania municipality, Piedmont region), …”
We remain available to clarify any issue or answer that Reviewers or Editors may raise.
Best regards,
Sincerely yours,
Nicole Mélanie Falla
Sonia Demasi
Matteo Caser and
Valentina Scariot
Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences
University of Turin
Largo Paolo Braccini, 2
10095, Grugliasco (TO)
Italy
Phone number: +039-011/6708935
Fax number: +039-011/6708798
e-mail: [email protected]
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The methodology of the research does not show any elements of novelty. They are actually repetitions of the methods, which have been applied previously by the other authors. In my opinion this work will not benefit the entire scientific community – its impact may only be regional. I think that Horticulturae is not publishing protocols, and your work seems to belong strictly to this kind of papers.
Author Response
April 15th 2021
To:
Editorial Office
Horticulturae
Dear Editorial Office,
We submit a revised version of the article “Phytochemical profile and antioxidant properties of Italian green tea, a new high quality niche product” by Nicole Mélanie Falla, Sonia Demasi, Matteo Caser and Valentina Scariot for publication in the Special Issue “Nutritional and Antioxidant Value of Horticulturae Products” of the journal “Horticulturae”.
We thank for the comments and suggestions that were very helpful to further improve clarity of the manuscript.
For the preparation of the revised manuscript, we followed all the comments and suggestions of the editor and the reviewers as stated below. We highlighted the main changes to the text by red.
Reviewer 3
The methodology of the research does not show any elements of novelty. They are actually repetitions of the methods, which have been applied previously by the other authors. In my opinion this work will not benefit the entire scientific community – its impact may only be regional. I think that Horticulturae is not publishing protocols, and your work seems to belong strictly to this kind of papers.
We are sorry that this work has not been positively evaluated and we thank you for your suggestion.
We remain available to clarify any issue or answer that Reviewers or Editors may raise.
Best regards,
Sincerely yours,
Nicole Mélanie Falla
Sonia Demasi
Matteo Caser and
Valentina Scariot
Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences
University of Turin
Largo Paolo Braccini, 2
10095, Grugliasco (TO)
Italy
Phone number: +039-011/6708935
Fax number: +039-011/6708798
e-mail: [email protected]
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
