Geographical Distribution and Environmental Correlates of Eleutherosides and Isofraxidin in Eleutherococcus senticosus from Natural Populations in Forests at Northeast China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

My comments for authors are included in a pdf file.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Point-to-point responses to Reviewer #1

 

Authors investigated in this article the effects of geography and climate on the special distribution of concentrations of bioactive compounds in Eleutherococcus senticosus plants in natural populations at Northeast China. They revealed that there is a clear correlation between some of climatic factors and the concentration of secondary metabolites. The result in this study may be important to the regional management for the natural reserves of medicinal plants E. senticosus in forests as described in the article, and also may be applicable to conservation for other medicinal plants as natural source of bioactive compounds.

 

However, I cannot recognize exact chemical structures for eleutheroside A, eleutheroside E and isofraxitin appeared in the title and the abstract because the chemical names for those bioactive compounds were not given appropriately and there were many mistakes in the text throughout the manuscript. I thought authors should have paid more attention to the chemical writing and checked carefully before submission to review. Anyway, the manuscript would be improved for publication if authors could address concerns raised below.

 

Throughout the manuscript, use a minus sign (−) for negative, not hyphen (−). For example, R= −0.4394 in line 22.

[Response] All signs indicating ‘negative’ have been changed into the minus symbol.

 

Throughout the manuscript, insert a space between the number and unit, e.g. −4.7 °C in line 100.

[Response] Changes made.

 

Throughout the manuscript, check the spelling for eleutheroside A and E. In line 72, 73, 85, and others, elutheroside B and E would be replaced.

[Response] The correct terms should be eleutherosides B and E, etc. Changes are made. A study was cited to improve the correction.

 

In line 74 and others, isofraxitin in the title was changed to isoflaxidin. Both were appeared in the manuscript and I cannot identify the chemical structure for the compound. Please use a common name for each compound throughout the manuscript and add a chemical systematic name for the compound or cite references that bring readers correct chemical information.

[Response] The precise term should be ‘isofraxidin’, which has been revised throughout the whole manuscript.

 

Please cite a reference for the chemical structure of eleutheroside A and E.

[Response] The chemical structures have been added by a new figure and two citations.

 

Line 87. Please add more content and explanation for your hypothesis.

[Response] More information has been supplied.

 

Could you include a diagram or map of plot distribution listed in Table 1? It was difficult to know the places of the stations from values of latitude and longitude listed in Table 1.

[Response] Yes we have drawn the specific location of plots on every map so as to directly check their precise places.

 

Line 126. Please add a particle size for “60−mesh”.

[Response] It is 0.25 mm. Changes have been made in the text.

 

Page 6 and 7. Figure 2, 3, and 4. Please increase the resolution of the graphics so that the scales are readable.

[Response] We have redrawn these figures and we found that the arrangement of pictures in a horizontal array would impact the size of each picture. Therefore, we changed the arrangement using higher-resolution images.

 

Line 181: “…along the latitude instead of the latitude (Figure 2C).” Is it “along the longitude instead of the latitude”?

[Response] Sorry for this error. This part has been revised.

 

Line 187. “Shoot sofraxitin concentration …” Isofraxitin? Or Isofraxidin?

[Response] Isofraxidin

 

Line 188. “…which was found to be lower in the central area than in the surrounding areas (Figure 3C).” I cannot understand this because the center on the study area looks high in concentration.

[Response] This was revised and described with a higher-precisely picture.

 

 

Reviewer 2 Report

In this study, an interesting issue, the correlation between environmental factors and bioactive compounds in the studied medicinal plants, was conducted and, as expected, the authors concluded that the compounds contents were influenced by environmental factors. Experiments were correctly designed, and data were thoroughly analyzed.

I think, in addition to table 1, there should be one figure which shows the location of these 27 plots in the map, which will visually tell us the locations and can be easily used to locate the plots when we see figures 3 and 4.

Author Response

Open Review

(x) I would not like to sign my review report

( ) I would like to sign my review report

English language and style

( ) Extensive editing of English language and style required

( ) Moderate English changes required

(x) English language and style are fine/minor spell check required

( ) I don't feel qualified to judge about the English language and style

Yes   Can be improved     Must be improved  Not applicable

Does the introduction provide sufficient background and include all relevant references?

(x)    ( )     ( )     ( )

Is the research design appropriate?

(x)    ( )     ( )     ( )

Are the methods adequately described?

(x)    ( )     ( )     ( )

Are the results clearly presented?

(x)    ( )     ( )     ( )

Are the conclusions supported by the results?

(x)    ( )     ( )     ( )

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

 

In this study, an interesting issue, the correlation between environmental factors and bioactive compounds in the studied medicinal plants, was conducted and, as expected, the authors concluded that the compounds contents were influenced by environmental factors. Experiments were correctly designed, and data were thoroughly analyzed.

 

I think, in addition to table 1, there should be one figure which shows the location of these 27 plots in the map, which will visually tell us the locations and can be easily used to locate the plots when we see figures 3 and 4.

[Response] We have thoroughly revised the distributing maps with investigating plots.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I could not find author response to my comment #13 to 17 in my first review report which was a pdf file with two pages. So I put them below.

From my review report for the manuscript v1:

Line 192. “However, root sofraxitin concentration …” Check the spell. Line 213 and Figure 5D. “…but latitude was negatively correlated to eleutheroside E concentration in shoot (R=-0.5083; P=0.0068) (Figure 5D).” Please use a minus sign for negative and check the content of Figure 5D in which the R and P values are different from those appeared in the text above. Line 227, 228, 231, and others, please correct “sofraxitin”. Line 291. “…between rail and other climate or…” Is that “rain”? Line 295. Please use all lower-case letters for “7-Methyl-juglone”.

 

Author Response

Dear Editor,

 

Sorry we did not respond to comments from reviewer #1 for items 13 to 17 because they were shown in the second page of PDF file that we failed to check for the first time. In this round of reviewing, we revise the manuscript according to them. Please see the point-to-point responses.

 

Line 192. “However, root sofraxitin concentration …” Check the spell.

[Response] Here, and thereafter, sofraxitin should have been isofraxidin. Changes are made throughout the whole manuscript. Also the terms in Figure 4C and 5C, which are given by ArcGis, have also been revised.

 

Line 213 and Figure 5D. “…but latitude was negatively correlated to eleutheroside E concentration in shoot (R=-0.5083; P=0.0068) (Figure 5D).” Please use a minus sign for negative and check the content of Figure 5D in which the R and P values are different from those appeared in the text above.

[Response] The minus sign has been revised. I am sorry we did not give clear description about data: R and P values in the text are coefficients of Pearson correlation and R2 and P values in the figure cells are coefficients of linear regression models. We added more explanations to this part.

 

Line 227, 228, 231, and others, please correct “sofraxitin”.

[Response] Amended.

 

Line 291. “…between rail and other climate or…” Is that “rain”?

[Response] Yes. Thanks for indicating. Amended.

 

Line 295. Please use all lower-case letters for “7-Methyl-juglone”.

[Response] Changes made.