Essential Oil and Polyphenolic Compounds of Flourensia cernua Leaves: Chemical Profiling and Functional Properties

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The title is inconsistent. It should reflect the goal and the results obtained, and not inform what analyzes were performed in the work. The analysis itself is not the goal. This also applies to the Abstract and Introduction, the authors should define the main goal of the work. Why (What for) all these analyzes were carried out.

Line 22- essential oils do not contain flavonoid compounds (mainly these are terpenes)- this is a shortcut taken too far; the expression concerning polyphenolic compounds is also not properly created. Flavonoids are the chemical group of compounds in the frame of phenolics. I should be for example – Among phenolics the dominant group of compounds were flavonoids.

Line 23-24 - which active compounds reveals such activities?– Do the Authors studied what compounds isolated from the plant reveals such potential? If not, it should be stated that the extracts obtained from the plant reveal such properties, not the active compounds.

Line 29-30 it is a cliché, the conclusions should be indicated here.

There is no reference in the work who is the author of the Latin name of the species.

Lines55-59- this part concerns methodology.

From the methodology (chapter 2.2) it is not known what part of the plant was used for the research. How the raw material was collected (from how many plants from the population, when - in what developmental stage of the plant), how it was stored until the analyzes were carried out - these are the factors that affect the composition and content of active compounds in the raw material, therefore in this type of work should be presented clearly.

Why the Authors used 50℃ as drying temperature of raw materials when analyzing essential oils. Such a high temperature makes that essential oils evaporate quickly, therefore the analysis of such a dried raw material on  essential oil content and composition may be unreliable.

Was the raw material grind before the extraction? How the sample was taken for analysis?

The paper states that all analyzes were performed in three repetitions. However, it is not clear whether each raw material was extracted three times (three samples taken from the same raw material and extracted?), or whether the analysis was carried out on one extract obtained from one sample of raw material.

The study examined the content of essential oil in the raw material, not the essential oil yield. Essential oil yield is defined in relation to a specific tonnage and / or the cultivation area from which the plant material was obtained. These are two separate values. The same for plyphenols. It should be expressed as the content of EO/phenolisc  in the raw material not the yield. In the paper published in Agronomy this issues should be especially clearly and properly named.

The paper should provide the percentage share of chemical compounds identified in the essential oil. The results in Table 3 are incomplete, we do not know which compound/compounds are dominant here, and this is what the biological activity of the plant material depends on. The same for phenolics (table 4). The content of identified compounds should be added here.

Author Response

Please find in the attached file the answer to your comments and suggestions

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The article Agronomy-1905266 presents results on the use of a native plant in Mexico as a source of bioactive polyphenols. However, several corrections are needed, which are indicated in the attached file.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please find in the attached file the answer to your comments and suggestions

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

After the changes the article may be accepted for publication.

Reviewer 2 Report

The article agronomy-1905266 was improvised to answer some of the reviewer questions. I suggest your approval.