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Investigation of ginkgotoxin in different parts of Ginkgo seeds and its changes during low temperature storage and heating processing

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Abstract

Ginkgo seeds can serve as not only food but also drugs, which benefit from their plenty of nutritional and functional components. However, the presence of 4’-O-methylpyridoxine (MPN) and its 5’-glucoside (MPNG), known as ginkgotoxin, prohibits people from daily consumption of Ginkgo seeds. People have traditionally believed that removing the plantule or heating Ginkgo seeds will detoxify them and that storing them at low temperatures will reduce the ginkgotoxin through their metabolism. This work aimed to confirm or falsify these traditional understandings. The results showed that the highest content of ginkgotoxin in plantule reached 2246.99 ± 8.19 µg/g. However, removing the plantule can only slightly reduce the toxicity of Ginkgo seeds, because the weight of plantule only accounts for about 1% of Ginkgo seeds. Storage with shells (-20 ℃) was determined to be the optimal storage method for Ginkgo seeds, however, which only led to 12.57% decrease in ginkgotoxin. Boiling treatment was effective in reducing the toxicity by dissolving ginkgotoxin from Ginkgo seeds to water. The content of TMPN (MPN and MPNG) decreased from 534.36 ± 12.99 µg/g to 331.83 ± 5.53 µg/g. Whereas frying, microwaving, and baking had little influence on the content of ginkgotoxin in the case of guaranteeing the edibility of Ginkgo seeds. Interestingly, the conversion of MPNG to MPN was largely reduced by storing under low temperatures and heating treatment, which can reduce the toxicity of Ginkgo seeds because MPNG was much less toxic than MPN. These results involving ginkgotoxin furnish information for safe utilization of Ginkgo seeds.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by “Central Finance Forestry Science and Technology Promotion and Demonstration Fund Project” (Su[2023]TG03).

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Author notes

  1. Jiarui Cao, Minmin Zou contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Co-innovation Center for the Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China

    Jiarui Cao, Minmin Zou, Wen Zhang, Manman Shi & Erzheng Su

  2. Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China

    Jiarui Cao, Minmin Zou, Wen Zhang, Manman Shi & Erzheng Su

  3. Co-Innovation Center for Efficient Processing and Utilization of Forest Products, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China

    Erzheng Su

  4. Bai Ma Future Food Research Institute, Nanjing, 211225, China

    Erzheng Su

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  1. Jiarui Cao
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  2. Minmin Zou
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Cao, J., Zou, M., Zhang, W. et al. Investigation of ginkgotoxin in different parts of Ginkgo seeds and its changes during low temperature storage and heating processing. Food Measure 18, 1265–1278 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11694-023-02302-y

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