Accumulation Characteristics of Heavy Metals in American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolium L.) and Changes in Their Contents after Soaking the Plants

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript is acceptable for publication to the journal after some minor revisions. Following the points, the author should check:

1.  Please revise the significant figures in the text. In some cases, it is not meaningful two decimals figures. 

2. In line # 98, please specify the volume quantity of concentrated nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide per sample.

3.In line # 110, It is better in "Analysis of Variance" to write the abbreviation also, because it is more understandable to readers.

4. Lines 269-271, please check again the text in accordance to the above, there is a confusion for someone that read it.

 

Author Response

请参阅附件。

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors,

As in this study, the concentration of heavy metals in plants have been examined, the study can not be complete by doing the research in ay specific month of the year but it needs an study of  the influence of different weather conditions on the concentration of soaked metals. 

Secondly, optimization of temperature, pH, water content should also be taken into account. 

Third, ICP-Mass results should be explained more adequately

AAS is also required for precise results and discussion

Forth, manuscript required rigorous check of grammar and spell check. 

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors of the article entitled “Accumulation characteristics of heavy metals in American ginseng (Panax quinquefolium L.) and changes in their contents after soaking the plants" presented an evaluation of the assessment ability of selected heavy metals in Panax quinquefolium L. After a thorough reading of the manuscript, there were some comments that should be corrected in order for the article to meet the editorial requirements of the Journal.

 

Part of the manuscript	Comment
Abstract	Authors should shorten the description of the abstract and focus on the results they have obtained from the experiment and the conclusions they have obtained. The purpose of the research should also be added.
Introduction	In the introduction, the authors should include more information about the plant used in the research, and above all about the metals and the relationship between soil-metals-plant used in the experiment. There is also no information on how the metals behave in the soil. Suggested literature is added below table.
Materials and Methods	Authors should provide all information on the reagents used, including ultrapure water. The authors should also address the question of whether they reject the roots and leaves as contaminants, which is untrue, as later in the article they report testing these parts of the plant.
Results	The authors did not provide any information on soil sampling, the results of which are presented. In the description of the results, the authors did not provide references in the text to the tables and figures.
Discussion	The authors should give more comparisons of achieved results with the other authors. The authors should also refer more to the impact of selected metals on the plant, how they behave in the soil and how the plant absorbs the metals.
Conclusions	The conclusions should be expanded by the authors and the most important observations from the experiment should be listed in terms of the missing information that was mentioned earlier.
Additional remarks	The font used by the authors in all figures should be the same as in the entire Palatino Linotype manuscript, in accordance with the MDPI standard. The authors should improve the quality of the added figures and their purposefulness. Authors should also correct the style of language used throughout the article as it does not conform to the standards for a scientific article in most of the article.

 

The manuscript prepared by the authors is part of the aims and scope Applied Sciences Journal. After completing the above comments, the article will meet the editorial requirements and can be published in the Journal.

Suggested literature: 

Alloway, B.J. Heavy Metals in Soils, 2nd ed.; Blackie Academic and Professional: London, UK, 1995. 

Wang, L.K.; Veysel, E.; Ferruh, E. Handbook of Advanced Industrial and Hazardous Wastes Treatment; CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group: Boca Raton, FL, USA, 2009. 

Tack, F.M.G.; Bardos, P. Overview of Soil and Groundwater Remediation. In Soil and Groundwater Remediation Technologies; Ok, Y.S., Rinklebe, J., Hou, D., Tsang, D.C.W., Tack, F.M.G., Eds.; Taylor & Francis: Oxfordshire, UK, 2020. 

Pusz, A.; Wiśniewska, M.; Rogalski, D. Assessment of the Accumulation Ability of Festuca rubra L. and Alyssum saxatile L. Tested on Soils Contaminated with Zn, Cd, Ni, Pb, Cr, and Cu. Resources, 2021, 10 (5), 1–18. 

Schwarz, A.; Wilcke, W.; Styk, J.; Zech, W. Heavy Metal Release from Soils in Batch pH-stat Experiments. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 1999, 63, 290–296. 

Saha, J.K.; Selladurai, R.; Coumar, M.V.; Dotaniya, M.L.; Kundu, S.; Patra, A.K. Assessment of Heavy Metals Contamination in Soil. In Soil Pollution—An Emerging Threat to Agriculture; Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World; Springer: Singapore, 2017; Volume 10. 

Kabata-Pendias, A.; Mukherjee, A.B. Trace Elements from Soil to Human; Springer Nature: Berlin, Germany, 2007.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Accepted