Establishing the HPLC-MS/MS Method for Monitoring the Residue and Degradation of Butralin in Ginseng during Field and Risk Assessments
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
the authors have reported LC-MS based method to analyse butralin in ginseng ecosystem, work is reasonably interesting and carried out in scientifically correct manner and supported with appropriate statistical treatment. I recommend acceptance to this article .
with following suggestions
can authors include chemometric approach and give strategy for inline monitoring
how peak drifts and baseline corrections are taken care
in the present case only one profile is analysed one time, can author suggest approach to handle multiple LC-MS profiles
kindly also include p-values for the regression analysis
can author include the effect of location on butralin distribution
Author Response
the authors have reported LC-MS based method to analyse butralin in ginseng ecosystem, work is reasonably interesting and carried out in scientifically correct manner and supported with appropriate statistical treatment. I recommend acceptance to this article.
Response: Thank you for the positive comment.
with following suggestions
- can authors include chemometric approach and give strategy for inline monitoring
Response: This will be researched in the next step.
- how peak drifts and baseline corrections are taken care
Response: Because the method has conducted in the MRM model, its peak and baseline perform well, which is the strength of our established method.
- in the present case only one profile is analysed one time, can author suggest approach to handle multiple LC-MS profiles
Response: In this method, the ion of 296.2/222.2 was used for quantitation, and the 296.2/240.2 for qualitative subsidiarily, because the ion of 296.2/222.2 could indicates this response of butralin in HPLC-MS/MS.
- kindly also include p-values for the regression analysis
Response: The p-Value has been added and shown in table.
- can author include the effect of location on butralin distribution
Response: The effect of location on the distribution of butralin is very small, which mainly was affected by the climate and soil conditions. And this effect will be further studied in future work.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Please check the following:
1. Based on the results of this manuscript, the title should be changed. Instrumental analysis and residual analysis are major, and butralin behavior and risk assessment are minor.
2. Most of the contents of L.185-L.255 should be explained in 'Materials and Methods'. If you really want to use this contents, the phrase 'establishment of analysis method' should be included in the title.
3. Based on Table 2, I think you used 'behavior' in the title, but 'distribution' is correct here. If you want to use the concept of 'behavior', you must have a 'mass balance' data.
4. L.315: Dietary risk assessment
It is unreasonable to determine safety after risk assessment with only 'RQ value'. Please give the table so that we can see the rationale for the results and calculation.
5. Also check the following:
L.16: Use repeat units once at the end (before respectively).
L.114: Dried ginseng must be chopped and pulverized before extraction, but it was extracted only with shaking without above. Is this an appropriate extraction method?
L.130: ml to mL
L.134: Check that it is different from the contents of L.86-87
Doesn't 'ginseng soil' in the text mean 'ginseng-growing soil', 'ginseng-grown soil', 'ginseng-cultivating soil' and 'ginseng-cultivated soil'?
Table 1: Check the spelling of 'issipation': insert 'D'.
L.285-286: 'Residual concentration' is only high, not 'Residual amount'. Since the concentrations of pesticides in soil and plants are from completely different matrices, simple comparisons of figures should not be made.
L.292: Ref. 27 used to interpret the results does not appear to be relevant, please check.
Table 2: Revise Ginseng to Fresh ginseng for clarity of concept.
L.348: Space 'Fromginseng' like 'From ginseng'.
Author Response
- Based on the results of this manuscript, the title should be changed. Instrumental analysis and residual analysis are major, and butralin behavior and risk assessment are minor.
Response: It has been changed to “Establish the HPLC-MS/MS method for monitoring the residue, degradation under field and risk assessment”.
- Most of the contents of L.185-L.255 should be explained in 'Materials and Methods'. If you really want to use this contents, the phrase 'establishment of analysis method' should be included in the title.
Response: This part of the content is methodological optimisation, in that the results are discussed more reasonably.
- Based on Table 2, I think you used 'behavior' in the title, but 'distribution' is correct here. If you want to use the concept of 'behavior', you must have a 'mass balance' data.
Response: It has been modified.
- L.315: Dietary risk assessment
It is unreasonable to determine safety after risk assessment with only 'RQ value'. Please give the table so that we can see the rationale for the results and calculation.
Response: It has been modified and shown in Table S.5.
- Also check the following:
L.16: Use repeat units once at the end (before respectively).
Response: It has been modified.
L.114: Dried ginseng must be chopped and pulverized before extraction, but it was extracted only with shaking without above. Is this an appropriate extraction method?
Response: This method is mainly used to extract the pesticides from dried ginseng. The process of preparing dried ginseng is mentioned in the first paragraph of 2.4. The dried ginseng sample was chopped and pulverized before extraction, and this method has good precision and accuracy by validation.
L.130: ml to mL
Response: It has been modified.
L.134: Check that it is different from the contents of L.86-87
Response: It has been modified.
Doesn't 'ginseng soil' in the text mean 'ginseng-growing soil', 'ginseng-grown soil', 'ginseng-cultivating soil' and 'ginseng-cultivated soil'?
Response: Yes, the “ginseng soil”, “ginseng-growing soil”, “ginseng cultivating soil” and “ginseng-cultivated soil” express the same meaning.
Table 1: Check the spelling of 'issipation': insert 'D'.
Response: It has been modified.
L.285-286: 'Residual concentration' is only high, not 'Residual amount'. Since the concentrations of pesticides in soil and plants are from completely different matrices, simple comparisons of figures should not be made.
Response: It has been modified.
L.292: Ref. 27 used to interpret the results does not appear to be relevant, please check.
Response: It has been modified.
Table 2: Revise Ginseng to Fresh ginseng for clarity of concept.
Response: It has been modified.
L.348: Space 'Fromginseng' like 'From ginseng'.
Response: It has been modified.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
