Review Reports - Antiglycation Effect of Jabuticaba (<i>Plinia cauliflora</i>) and Its Potential Role in Delaying Cataract Formation in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Authors have assessed the importance of Jabuticaba juice in the prevention of cataract. They have identified some active compounds and measured the antiglycating potential of extracts.

There are some concerns regarding the approaches used in the paper.

1. Authors can include the term juice in the title - Jabuticaba juice

2. Methods and results do not run in the same flow. In the methods section identification of active compounds before the antiglycation assays. On the other hand results section begin with antiglycation assays.

3. Have the authors included the ethical permission for the use of animals?

4. Authors have used spectroflourimeter for the measurement of glycation products. They have mentioned excitation wavelength 355 nm/fluorescence wavelength 460 nm). Howevere the literature reports that the excitation wavelength is 370 nm and the emission wavelength is 440 nm.

5. It is difficult to conclude the relationship between cataract and glycation in the present study. Authors should have included the data on blood glucose, HbA1c, or glycoalbumin levels in our animal experiment.

6. It is also difficult to conclude that Repandinin B has antiglycation property in the present study without doing any direct measurement. Authors have concluded on the basis of presence of this molecule in the Fraction-5.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Authors can consult English editors for the improvement of the quality as per the suggestion of Editorial office.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The work submitted by Ridwan et al., titled: "Antiglycation Effect of Jabuticaba (Plinia cauliflora) and its Potential Role in Delaying Cataract Formation in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats" is an interesting in vivo study investigating the effects of the Jabuticaba extract on cataract formation in a diabetic rat model for type 1 diabetes.

The reviewer would like to raise the following points for the authors' consideration:

1. Consider providing more information in the introduction section regarding the statistics (prevalence of diabetes and the associated statistics with cataract). Also consider including information on the cost/burden of the disease.

2. How was the the number of rats determined for the study (power calculation?)?

3. How was the duration of the experiment and the data collection time points determined?

4. Were the rats blocked by weight prior to assignment into groups?

5. How was the dose of the juice extract determined?

6. What would the equivalent dose of the juice tested be for humans if one thinks of human consumption and a potential recommendation? Would the dose be reasonably easily achieved?

7. Did the authors consider other aspects of damage cause by diabetes in the vasculature and or the microbiome dimension? Here are a couple of articles that may be useful to consider for a brief discussion to that end:

Lacombe A, Li RW, Klimis-Zacas D, Kristo AS, Tadepalli S, Krauss E, Young R, Wu VC. Lowbush wild blueberries have the potential to modify gut microbiota and xenobiotic metabolism in the rat colon. PLoS One. 2013 Jun 28;8(6):e67497. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067497. PMID: 23840722; PMCID: PMC3696070.

Vendrame S, Daugherty A, Kristo AS, Riso P, Klimis-Zacas D. Wild blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) consumption improves inflammatory status in the obese Zucker rat model of the metabolic syndrome. J Nutr Biochem. 2013 Aug;24(8):1508-12. doi: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2012.12.010. Epub 2013 Mar 1. PMID: 23465589.

8. The paper is relatively under-referrensed more citations and a more comprehensive discussion are needed.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The English is good overall but the manuscript would benefit in terms of flow from a native English speaker's read through.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

No comments as authors have revised the manuscript.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor corrections are required.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors did not discuss inflammation at large and the role of microbiome despite reviewer's suggestions and references provided. This is an important aspect of the progression of pathology that may lead up to more specific pathologies due to diabetes such as cataract. In the reviewer's professional opinion the aspect of the microbiome and inflammation at large need to be discussed briefly as well.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

English is OK.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 3

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors did not include the dietary aspect and the manner in which this may influence diabetes and diabetes complications such as cataract. The reviewer has recommended some papers to that end.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf