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. 2019 Mar 13;6(3):181571.
doi: 10.1098/rsos.181571. eCollection 2019 Mar.

Protein content and amino acids profile in 10 cultivars of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.) nut from China

Mengyi Zhou  1   2 , Tongtong Hua  3 , Xiaofang Ma  2 , Haijun Sun  2 , Li Xu  2
Affiliations

Protein content and amino acids profile in 10 cultivars of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.) nut from China

Mengyi Zhou et al. R Soc Open Sci. .

Abstract

As a traditional food and medicine source, ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.) nut is popularly consumed in East Asia. The aim of this work is to characterize protein content and amino acids profile in 10 ginkgo nut cultivars, named successively as no. 1 to no. 10. There were observed differences among the cultivars with respect to the contents of protein and amino acids, except Cys. The no. 6 cultivar presented the highest protein content (22.1 g/100 g DW), while the no. 9 had the lowest (16.2 g/100 g DW). The contents of EAA and NEAA were revealed to vary in the range of 14.3-26.2 and 21.4-41.1 g/100 g protein, respectively. The most abundant EAA was Leu, and the first limiting amino acid was Lys. The level of Arg was attractive, especially in the no. 5 cultivar (1741 mg/100 g DW) where it is comparable to hazelnut and pistachio. As confirmed by AAS and EAAI, the no. 5 cultivar presented the best amino acids profile and protein quality among these cultivars. These results have relevance to the scientific development and application of ginkgo nuts in the food industry.

Keywords: Ginkgo biloba L.; amino acid; cultivar; ginkgo nut; protein quality.

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Conflict of interest statement

We have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Liquid chromatograms of the amino acid standards (fine line) and a ginkgo sample (thick line) at a detector wavelength of 570 nm (a) or 440 nm (b).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Dendrogram of hierarchical clustering results of the 10 ginkgo nut cultivars, using Ward's method and squared Euclidean distance by SPSS software.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
AAS of the ginkgo cultivars studied. WHO/FAO/UNO adult maintenance pattern are expressed as g amino acid/100 g protein: Phe + Tyr, 3.8; Met + Cys, 2.7; Lys, 4.5; Thr, 2.3; Leu, 5.9; Val, 3.9; Ile, 3.0; His, 1.5 (WHO/FAO, 2007 [21]).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
EAAI of the protein in gingko nuts of different varieties in relation to CP content.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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