Chemical-Anatomical Characterization of Stems of Asparagaceae Species with Potential Use for Lignocellulosic Fibers and Biofuels

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This work deals with the chemical-anatomical characterization of stems corresponding to 10 Asparagaceae species, focused on their use for the production of fibers and biofuels. It is a very well structured paper, which includes a complete study of the main components of the selected species, where the heterogeneity of the results, very frequent in the characterization of biomass, is revealed. The analysis of the samples is carried out in triplicate by following standardized methods, which allows comparison with data previously reported on the same species. After carefully reading the manuscript, only a few issues remain to be addressed:

1. It should be specified if these species are found only in Mexico, or in other regions of the planet. This point is interesting to evaluate if the impact of these results is restricted or broader, or that it can be extended to other Asparagaceae species.

2. It should be noted that for this treatment water is used at reflux for 1 h at 90ºC. Was this treatment done at 90ºC, or at reflux temperature, which could be slightly different?

3. The use of superscript letters in Tables 3 and 4 should be clearly explained, as it seemed somewhat confusing.

4. The data corresponding to the Principal Components, which are shown in Table 5 and Figure 1, should be explained in more detail, since the selection of a particular species will depend on the fraction required for valorization.

5. (Table 6) Check the assignments because the bending vibration must involve three atoms (see CH bending, OH plane bending) and the type of CH2 vibration is not specified.

6. Perhaps it would be interesting to provide information on the relative humidity and ashes of these species of Asparagaceae.

7. This study focuses mainly on the potential use of these species for the production of fibers and biofuels and, in this sense, a summary of the main valuable products that can be obtained from their different fractions could be of interest to readers.

Following the inclusion of these points, this interesting manuscript could be recommended for publication.

Author Response

In the attached file we respond to each one of your comments that allow us to improve the clarity of the documents.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Publication “Chemical-anatomical characterization of stems of Asparagaceae species with potential use for lignocellulosic and biofuels” by A. Maceda et al. discusses Asparagaceae species for their chemically-anatomically contents. There has been extensive investigations and made concludions are supported by the data analysis. However, some minor improvements are needed. Therefore, paper must be improved before publication.

·       In introduction and in analysis addtional analysis of climate during Asparagaceae species growth affect on stem content should be added, since growth conditions will affect content significantly

·       Typos and other mistakes should be checked out through the manuscript (for example page 3, line 94 "HNO3/ethanol" should be "HNO₃/ethanol", page 4, line 146 "893 cm⁻¹[26]," should be "893 cm⁻¹ [26], (with a space before reference)", Ppage 4, line 158 "calcofluor [30] ] to" should be "calcofluor [30] to", etc.)

·       Another method for chemical (for example - NREL/TP-510-42618 issued by the U.S. National Renewable EnergyLaboratory as done in: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2021.113780 ) content should be used for data validation, as FTIR is not sensitive enough for small contents and apsense of some peaks not necessarily mean there is no lignin or hemicellulose in the content etc.

·       Figures 2 and 3 with FTIR data should be improved: a lot of spectra in one graph, not all peaks there are deciphered, x ass should be stretched more for better visibility

·       Figure 1 is missing a legend where colors are atributed to the species (colors are nor mentioned in the text as well)

Author Response

In the attached file you will find the response to each one of your comments done to our manuscript. We consider that your review improve the clarity of the document. 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx