Biodeterioration Field Test and Mechanical Properties of Maesopsis eminii Wood Treated with Boron Preservative and Plant Oils

Lines in original manuscript

Review Comment

Responses/ Corrections

REVIEWER 1

1

Manii wood treated with ~

Done

51

Why used(chose) these oils?

Added sentence: “A lot of plants in Indonesia contain anti-fungal and anti-insect substances that have the potential to be used in wood protection, such as neem, candle nut, tamanu, etc.“

65

Mention the reference.

The reference was added

77

Which one is correct, manii or mani?

Please check the words in all parts of this manuscript.

Manii is the correct name.  All corrections were done

81

Reagent (boric acid) manufacturer information.

The boric acid (H₃BO₃) for analysis from Supelco®

86

MOE, MOR (first written) --> Full word.

Done

90

If possible,

Provide the references to all equations.

Done

91

How to adjust the MC to 14%?

The moisture content was checked with a moisture meter. 

119

replication.  5? or how many?

The test used 5 replications of samples.

120

Temperature at?

The samples were dried at 60 °C to a constant weight

130

Did any boric acid and oils not eluted?

In the previous research combined treatment of boric acid and seed oil could reduce preservative leaching from wood

186

Please provide the visual images of all wood samples.

Control, Boric acid-treated, Heated ~

Done. Figure 3

201

The graph is plotted with continuous lines, but it would be more understandable if it was presented with individual data points for each condition.

The line chart is changed to a bar chart (Figure 2)

204

You should provide the information on the field test site (temperature, humidity, etc.) in Section 2.

Done. The average rainfall = 404.7 mm/ month, relative humidity = 86.3%, temperature = 21.9 °C

295

did you check the density for each samples ?

Correction is done

331

This is insufficient to explain the reasons for the results

Correction is done

344

A clear explanation is needed as to which combination treatment conditions are optimal.

The combination of boric acid, tamanu oil and heating at 60 °C resulted in better improvement than other treatments in terms of termite resistance and mechanical properties of manii wood

Lines in original manuscript

Review Comment

Responses/ Correction

REVIEWER 2

3

Title: The scientific name of the species studied must be in the work’s title

Done

65

Introduction

The authors must highlight the real innovation of the work. What news will the publication of this article bring to the scientific knowledge?

The references presented are old and must portray a current reality on the studied topic.

There is a lot of self-citation at work, which should be avoided.

Done. Scientific information on the use of neem, tamanu, and candlenut oils in improving the quality of fast-growing wood is still rarely found. This research reveals the use of these plant oils in fast-growing wood protection technology to extend its service life in exterior uses.

The references have been updated

The self-citations have been replaced

86, 114

124

153, 162, 174

Material and Methods

Tables 1 and 2 is not required. You can insert this information directly into the text.

Figure 1 is not required. You can insert this information directly into the text.

Equations 5, 6, and 7 are widely known. Authors do not need to reproduce them in the text. Citing the standard is sufficient.

Done

Done

Done

Results and Discussion

It is necessary to add citations from other researchers who contribute to justifying the events, statements, and information presented. I suggest the authors search for cited literature to contribute to the presented results and observations.

The authors need to present the limitations found in the present study.

Done

344

Conclusions

Present some suggestions for future studies.

Done: Field testing over a longer time (multi-years) is necessary to ensure the resistance of the wood to degrading organisms as well as the leaching possibility of preservatives during wood contact with the soil.

Lines in original manuscript

Review Comment

Responses/ Correction

REVIEWER 3

1 Equation 1, C (boric concentration) is not necessarily incluced, because it is a constant value and the unit of R is kg/m3. 

2 The explanation of results is not scientific enough and need to improve.

3 Conclusion of the article is not comprehensive and need to be supplemented.

The equation is correct because the retention value is the weight of the active compound (boric acid) per unit volume of wood. If not multiplied by the concentration, it shows the weight of the preservative solution per unit volume of wood.

Done

The conclusion has been improved

Lines in original manuscript

Review Comment

Responses/ Correction

REVIEWER 4

50-52

54

50-64

77-78

81

86

88

94

119-120 121-122

148

-Please review sentence in lines 50-52. The meaning is not quite clear, check the tense. Same thing with sentence in line 54, check the grammar tense.

-Between lines 50 and 64, authors made reference to different works. But the way is not completely correct. It should be mention  the name of the authors e.g. Name et al. 2024  showed that the combination of [...] improved properties of wood [14]. Please check this along this section and correct it.

-In lines 77-78, please indicate who was the supplier of the wood for running the tests.

-Authors should mentioned if boron 5% solution is an aqueous solution.

-In table 1, it would be better if wood sized appear in mm.

-The process of impregnation, was carried out just with a cycle of pressure or was vaccum also employed to assure a better fixation of the additives into the wood?

-In the drying of the wood samples at 50ºC after impregnation, how was controlled that the wood samples had a level of moisture of 14% as they have the boron and the oils in their structure interfering in the weight? This should be explained.

-In line 118, the title of the standard used should also appear in the manuscript

-Change units in lines 119-120 and 121-122 to mm

-In line 148, authors should again include the title of the standard used.

-In section 3.2 I would advise to the authors to include a figure with the pictures of the before and after state of the wood samples to complement results from figure 3.

-Please improved resolution of figure 5.

-In lines 275-282, it was presented that the result found by the authors was different from that presented in another work from the literature. To what reason was due this effect? How it was possible that after a heat treatment at 190ºC of wood, their MOE was higher in some samples, specially in that without boric acid (AN)?

-In figure 7 it was seen that MOR was the highest at 120ºC but then it decreased to the lowest value at 190ºC. How can be justfied this behavior?

-In figure 8, authors should explain in the text why the samples impregnated with boric acid had in general a lower hardness than those without boric acid.

-Authors should improve their conclusions, since few and brief information was included in this section. It should cover all the experiments done and it should end with the global conclusion of which is/are the formulation/s with most promising results for the intended application. In addition to that, authors should point out the future perspectives of this work.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The english should be reviewed throughout the whole manuscript (grammar, spelling and coherence) to correct minor mistakes.

Corrected:

The substances taken from leaves, bark, stems, or fruit/seeds can be used as environmentally friendly wood preservatives.

In addition, oil from neem seeds also had antibacterial properties.

Some corrections have been done

Corrected: The manii wood (Maesopsis eminii Engl.) was obtained from a community forest in Bogor, West Java.

Corrected: The boric acid (H3BO3) for analysis from Supelco® was dissolved in the aquadest to a concentration of 5%.

Corrections have been done

The impregnation process was only carried out using pressure without vacuum due to equipment limitations.

The sample moisture content was checked with a moisture meter INGCO-HETWM01.

Done: Standard Test Method of Evaluating Wood Preservatives by Field Tests with Stakes

Done

Done

Done

Done

Based on statistical analysis in this study, heating 180 °C did not significantly change the MOE of manii wood, while in the study of Percin et al. [4] there was a noticeable decrease in the MOE of oak wood.  It is due to a higher heating temperature, which is 190 °C, and different properties of wood species. 

Some explanation has been added: The MOR of heated manii wood at 120 °C (AT120) slightly increased.  This supported the research of Aydin [39] that the MOR of Taurus cedar steadily increased in heating of 80 and 120 °C for up to 8 hrs. It could be caused by the crystallization of amorphous cellulose.

Done: In general, the combined treatment of plant oil and heat treatment caused higher hardness of manii wood compared to the combined treatment of boric acid, plant oils, and heat treatment, which contained less plant oil in the wood due to the presence of boric acid. Oil heating can increase wood crystallinity which affects wood hardness.  This was in line with the report of Suri et al. [41] that oil heat treatment at 180 °C for up to 3 h increased the hardness of Pinus koraiensis wood.

The conclusion has been improved

The article has been corrected according to the suggestion in English Proofreading.  The certificate is at the following link:  

https://ipb.link/english-proofreading