Characterization of Volatile Compounds from Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) and the Effect of Identified Compounds on Empoasca flavescens Behavior

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Very nicely done research. The only question that I have is the relative safety of the β-ocimene, linalool, and methyl salicylate compared to pesticides. Just because something is "natural," it does not mean it is safe (some of the most toxic compounds come from plants and animals). I could not find any information on the toxicity of β-ocimene. Linalool has an acute toxicity of 2.79 mg/kg (rat) and methyl salicylate has an acute toxicity of 0.887 mg/kg (rat). Compared to synthetic pesticides, these may be higher, but may not persist in the environment. They do still carry dangers and this should be pointed out to the readers.

Author Response

Thank you for allowing us to submit a revised draft of the manuscript "Characterization of Volatile Compounds from Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) and Their Effect Against Empoasca flavescens" for publication in Horticulturae, Section Integrated Pest Management, Special Issue Integrated Pest Management in Horticulture. We appreciate the time and effort you and the reviewers dedicated to providing feedback on our manuscript and are grateful for the insightful comments and valuable improvements to our paper. We have incorporated most of the suggestions made by the reviewers. Those changes are highlighted within the document by track changes. Please see below, for a point-by-point response to the reviewers' comments and concerns.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors

The manuscript involves the “Characterization of Volatile Compounds from Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis L.) and Their Effect Against Empoasca flavescens”.  The study presents well-planned work with adequately important results. Therefore, this work is good enough to be published, however a revision with minor changes should be considered before its publication.:

 

1.     The botanical name of Camellia sinensis L. or Camellia sinensis (L.) in should be change to Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze in all text.

2.     Line 46: Please recheck  “ animals’ ” or animals

3.     Line 225 :  “ E. flavescens” to italicized font

4.     Table1. Table 1. Not clear. Please change to show the relative content (%) of each volatile compound, each sample and classified these compounds into 11 groups on Table1. For example Lv et al., (2015)

“Lv, Shi-Dong, Yuan-Shuang Wu, Yu-Zhu Song, Jiang-Sheng Zhou, Ming Lian, Chen Wang, Lun Liu, and Qing-Xiong Meng. "Multivariate analysis based on GC-MS fingerprint and volatile composition for the quality evaluation of Pu-erh green tea." Food Analytical Methods 8, no. 2 (2015): 321-333..”

 

 

Good luck

 

 

Author Response

Thank you for allowing us to submit a revised draft of the manuscript "Characterization of Volatile Compounds from Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) and Their Effect Against Empoasca flavescens" for publication in Horticulturae, Section Integrated Pest Management, Special Issue Integrated Pest Management in Horticulture. We appreciate the time and effort you and the reviewers dedicated to providing feedback on our manuscript and are grateful for the insightful comments and valuable improvements to our paper. We have incorporated most of the suggestions made by the reviewers. Those changes are highlighted within the document by track changes. Please see below, for a point-by-point response to the reviewers' comments and concerns.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript entitled Characterization of Volatile Compounds from Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis L.) and Their Effect Against Empoasca flavescens presents information on the characterization of volatile compounds extracted from C. sinensis and the evaluation of standards of ocimene, linalool, and methyl salicylate against E. flavescens. The manuscript presents several issues that authors must attend to. Below are the comments

-The title of the manuscript does not represent its content and is not related to the objectives.

-Revise the language of the manuscript.

-Page 2. Line 74. Place nitrogenated fertilizers instead N fertilizers. Line 85. We wished? Improve the expression. Line 92. 15:00 and 17:00? Hours?

- Page 3. Lines 120-121. Do the numbers on the lines refer to hours?

-Page 5. Line 159. Write E. flavescences in italiks.

-What was the rationale for showing table 1? The table does not show any relevant information. It is better to show the complete identification of volatile compounds such as retention time, mass to charge information, fragmentation pattern, etc. Include this information as supplementary material.

-Figure 3. The image quality must be improved.

-Sections 2.5 and 3.3. What was the rationale for assaying B-ocimene, linalool, and methyl salicylate? Authors must test the extracts of C. sinensis clones to demonstrate their activity against E. flavescens.

Author Response

Thank you for allowing us to submit a revised draft of the manuscript "Characterization of Volatile Compounds from Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) and Their Effect Against Empoasca flavescens" for publication in Horticulturae, Section Integrated Pest Management, Special Issue Integrated Pest Management in Horticulture. We appreciate the time and effort you and the reviewers dedicated to providing feedback on our manuscript and are grateful for the insightful comments and valuable improvements to our paper. We have incorporated most of the suggestions made by the reviewers. Those changes are highlighted within the document by track changes. Please see below, for a point-by-point response to the reviewers' comments and concerns.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Most of the comments have been attended to. There are minor comments that authors must attend to.

The title of the manuscript is Characterization of Volatile Compounds from Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis L.) and Their Effect Against Empoasca flavescens. The authors considered the title represents the content of the manuscript. However, the title did not mention that the effect against E. flavescens was tested using standard compounds not by using the volatile compounds extracted from the clones characterized. Also, it is mentioned the effect of identified compounds against E. flavescens, what kind of effect? 

The language of the manuscript must be revised since there are detected typos and grammar mistakes. It was excessively used first-person writing. For example, in section 2.3 authors wrote: We would like to select clones resistant to E. flavescens. So, the question is, were the clones selected? In this particular case, the authors need to rewrite the idea. 

Author Response

Thank you for allowing us to submit a revised draft of the manuscript "Characterization of Volatile Compounds from Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) and the Effect of Identified Compounds on Empoasca flavescens Behavior" for publication in Horticulturae, Section Integrated Pest Management, Special Issue Integrated Pest Management in Horticulture. We appreciate the time and effort the reviewers dedicated to providing feedback on our manuscript and are grateful for the insightful comments and valuable improvements to our paper. We have incorporated most of the suggestions made by the reviewers. Those changes are highlighted within the document by track changes. Please see below, for a point-by-point response to the reviewers' comments and concerns.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf