Oxalate Contents of Raw, Boiled, Wok-Fried and Pesto and Juice Made from Fat Hen (Chenopodium album) Leaves
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
In this study, oxalate and calcium contents in raw, cooked, and processed fat hen were measured. The authors discussed the influence of cooking and processing of fat he on the contents of these ingredient. The experiment was carefully conducted and the results were clearly presented. I think that this research needs several revisions as follows;
2. Materials and Methods
# An item such as HPLC analysis should be set up, and line 133 to 154 should be described in this item.
# The figure of HPLC chromatogram of oxalic acid (standard and sample) should be added.
Author Response
2. Materials and Methods
# An item such as HPLC analysis should be set up, and line 133 to 154 should be described in this item.
We are not clear what this means. We could delete this whole section and just refer to the previously published method. Perhaps the editor could comment.
# The figure of HPLC chromatogram of oxalic acid (standard and sample) should be added.
Putting a chromatogram of the HPLC analysis is not common in this journal. We are using a method that has been widely used in many other publications and is a validated method.
LV and GPS 12/12/2018
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
See attached file for complete review of manuscript.
Comments for author File: Comments.docx
Author Response
Reply to reviewers re paper - foods-40215 - Oxalate contents of raw, boiled, wok-fried and pesto and juice made from fat hen (Chenopodium album) leaves. By Geoffrey Savage and Leo Vanhanen
General Comments: This is a well written manuscript that is competently carried out with proper controls and background information. The manuscript’s objective, as noted by the authors, is “…to investigate the oxalate compositions of raw and cooked leaves of fat hen harvested in New Zealand. In addition, the study investigated the oxalate content of a pesto made from processing the leaves at room temperature and the preparation of a mixed juice using the raw leaves.”
ok
Specific Comments: there are numerous minor, technical comments made throughout the manuscript that are noted below by section and line number.
See below
Title: Appropriate and clear;
Abstract: covers the essential elements (results and conclusions) of the manuscript;
Key words: should words/phrases be in alphabetical order?
Recent papers in this journal do not show an alphabetical order
Introduction: provides excellent background information related to the manuscript and includes recent citations covering the literature;
Ok
Materials and Methods: are clearly organized.
Ok
Ls 94,95/Ls182,185: “minutes” should be abbreviated to min, like that done later in manuscript;
Changed to min
Ls 97,98: suggestion is to reidentify this product source and other products and instrumentation in M&M by using their www. websites instead of local addresses, especially for readers from other parts of the world who would probably go to closer sources for the same or similar product;
We have followed the format used in recent papers published in this journal
L 107: Table 1. In that this recipe was used for testing, I would have suggested using distilled or deionized water as the ‘tap water’ that was used may have minerals affecting the results presented. Obviously, the use of this recipe anywhere else using local tap water would probably change the results but probably not by much;
It is well known that tap water in NZ is pure uncontaminated. It is common in NZ to use community water (tap water) for food processing. We took the trouble to carry out our own mineral analysis and the mineral contents were well below established world standards for drinking and food processing. Specifically, the Ca content was very low indeed. Using distilled water for cooking or food processing does not represent normal practice.
L 132: the use of ‘high purity water’ is meaningless without knowing how it was produced.
Line 138 High purity water. This reference has been used successfully in many other papers. It is standard laboratory equipment. B-Pure Cartridge System. Barnstead International (Thermo Scientific) TMO_B TSI-D-D2
On L162 the high purity water’s source is listed as coming from ‘Branstead’. Barnstead The assumption is this may be deionized water. Why not call it that [deionized water] and its first mention should include (Branstead…); see line 138.
High purity water is the correct term as it only “ion reduced” not totally deionized.
Results:
L 192/Table 3: Some of the lines of numbers do not line up with the left designators. This is the same for Table 4;
We assume you mean the columns? This has been done.
Removed “oxalate” and “calcium” as they do not help in this table.
Tables 3 & 4: in the header to each Table, “brackets” are mentioned but the numbers in the tables are surrounded by ‘parentheses’. Either change brackets > parentheses or change the parentheses around the specific numbers > brackets;
Not clear, two words for the same thing ( ) Brackets are more commonly and widely used.
Discussion: is well written and covers the information presented in the Results;
Ok
Conclusions: provides a good summary of the results/discussion and makes suggestions and warnings for those who use fat hen in their cooking;
Ok
References: All references are cited in the text. However, there is a mixture of citations that show both ‘volume and issue number’ and others only the ‘volume number’. Suggestion is to either show both for all journal citations or, if not possible, delete issue numbers altogether.
Ok issue numbers removed
Comment about originality report
It includes a long list of words or groups of words that have been used in other papers published from this laboratory. They appear to be correctly referenced. Much of the analysis appears to identify words like “insoluble oxalate” or “total calcium” which are rather difficult not to repeat. It seems to us that including 1% references is totally irrelevant.
LS and GPS 13/12/2018
