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A Study on the Release Persistence of Microencapsulated Tea Tree Essential Oil in Hotel Hot Spring Water

Water 2022, 14(9), 1391; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14091391

by Jui-Liang Hsu¹, Tzu-Yun Lin², Jung-Hul Chien³, Chin-Hsien Hsu^4,*

, Hsiao-Hsien Lin^5,*

and An-Chi Yeh⁶

Reviewer 1: Anonymous

Reviewer 2: Anonymous

Water 2022, 14(9), 1391; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14091391

Submission received: 17 March 2022 / Revised: 19 April 2022 / Accepted: 22 April 2022 / Published: 26 April 2022

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contaminants of Emerging Concern in the Urban Water Cycle: Fate, Occurrence, Detection, Monitoring, and Control)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors

The subject of your manuscript is interesting to the readers and is very important from the environmental and health, in addition to economical point of view.

Indeed, The presented study is lack of some important information related to the issue of developing antibacterial polymer matrix for the reuse of hot water springer.

My main concern can be summarized in the following points;

1- The chemical components of the essential Tea Tree is missing. You need to mention and also to declare which one of them or which group of them are responsible or having the antibacterial activity. Moreover, the interaction of thoese active componenets with the polymer matrix (alginate) has to be discussed to explain the release behavior.

2- The role of Chitosan in the blank sample without essential Tea Tree oil (Alginate/Chitosan) is not justefied. For comparison with the encapsulated Tea Tree essential oil/Alginate composite, the must have the same composition except containing the bioactive component (Tea Tree essential oil). Authors need to compare with Alginate matrix has the same amount of Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) used in the preparation of Composite Microcapsules of Alginate/Tea Tree Essential Oil. Otherwise, the authors need to incorporate the Chitosan in the preparation of Composite Microcapsules of Alginate/Tea Tree Essential Oil and repeat all the experimental work for a ppropiate comparison.

3- The surface area is essentia and determined factor in controling release of the encapsulated Tea Tree Essential Oil, so it is logic enough for this study to address the effect of Composite Microcapsules of Alginate/Tea Tree Essential Oil particles size.

4- The authors did not show how to recover the Composite Microcapsules of Alginate after releasing of all the encapulated Tea Tree Essential Oil. Also, the authors did not discuss the release of Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) used in the preparation of Composite Microcapsules, if any.

5- The rate of addition and dose of Composite Microcapsules of Alginate/Tea Tree Essential Oil.

6- The biodegradation rate of the Composite Microcapsules of Alginate.

7- The essential characterizations of the Composite Microcapsules of Alginate/Tea Tree Essential Oil, are completly missing such as: FTIR, Porisity, water uptake, SEM analyses.

Accordingly, the authors need to revise their work according to the above mentioned comments before reconsidering thier work for publiccation.

A major revision is needed.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Reviewer1

The subject of your manuscript is interesting to the readers and is very important from the environmental and health, in addition to economical point of view.

Thank you reviewer for your acknowledgment.

Indeed, The presented study is lack of some important information related to the issue of developing antibacterial polymer matrix for the reuse of hot water springer.

My main concern can be summarized in the following points;

Dear Reviewer:

Regarding your suggestion, we have added 1.3. Sodium Alginate, Chitosan, and Tea Tree Essential Oil, in red font.

In addition, since the main components of tea tree oil do not have any chemical interaction with polymers, the physical interaction between them is a difficult topic, which is not discussed in this paper, and our laboratory is actively researching. Therefore we did not present it in the manuscript.

Dear Reviewer:

This may be a typo. In this experiment, we did not add the same amount of SDS to the blank experiment with tea tree essential oil.

Dear Reviewer:

Your thoughts and suggestions are correct. Therefore, this is one of the aims of this laboratory study.

Dear Reviewer:

This article does not discuss the issue of recycling, and according to the literature no.39, it is known that "in the presence of sodium ions, the alginate composite microcapsules will disintegrate with a pH > 7)", so there is no need to discuss the SDS content less than 0.1%.

5- The rate of addition and dose of Composite Microcapsules of Alginate/Tea Tree Essential Oil.

Dear Reviewer:

We supplement the addition amount and release rate calculated according to the formula. Such as "3.2. Bacterial Culture, Detection, and Analysis" in red font.

6- The biodegradation rate of the Composite Microcapsules of Alginate.

Dear Reviewer:

According to the literature no.39, it is known that "in the presence of sodium ions, the alginate composite microcapsules will disintegrate).

7- The essential characterizations of the Composite Microcapsules of Alginate/Tea Tree Essential Oil, are completly missing such as: FTIR, Porisity, water uptake, SEM analyses.

Dear Reviewer:

We have provided relevant data and descriptions in the manuscript. Such as the content of 2.3.3 to 2.3.5.

Dear Reviewer:

We thank you again for taking the time to assist in the completion of the manuscript. Best wishes for your work and life.

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript "The Antibacterial Effect of Microencapsulated Tea Tree Essential Oil on the Water Quality of Hot Spring Swimming Pools in Hotels" by Jui-Liang Hsu and co-workers, describe release studies of microencapsulated tea tree essential oil rather than its antibacterial effect, as it is stated in the title. I would suggest the title of the manuscript to be adjusted accordingly or more results proving the antibacterial effect to be added to the manuscript, if the title wants to be kept. Following, are given some comments/recommendations on the manuscript body:

the English grammar should be carefully checked. There are dots in wrong places, or spaces before comma as well.
on page 4, line 143: did the authors mean "tea tree essential oil has poor hydrophilicity" instead of "tea tree has poor hydrophilicity"?
Instead of "medicines" ("Moreover, it obtained eight kinds of medicines...") i would say compounds or chemicals. As well, if the authors affirm "it obtained", were they prepared these chemicals or they bought them?
what was the reason of using "the two-tube or three-tube microfluidic device"? the given explanation is not very clear and has to be more detailed.
what does indicate the last row in Table 2? 1M of what kind of cross linking agent was used?
"Figure 19. The effect of AlCl3 concentration..": from where AlCl3 appear?
the subscripts if molecular formulas have to be checked!
Figures 21, 22, and 23 should be placed in one line. They are too widen.
As well Figures 24, 25, and 26 should be placed in one line. They are too widen.
As well, Figures 27, 28, and 29 should be placed in one line. They are too widen.
for the section 5.1., have the authors any data/results to present in order to prove they affirmations?
The Author Contributions: line 669
Funding: line 670
Institutional Review Board Statement: line 671
Informed Consent Statement: line 672
Data Availability Statement: line 674
Acknowledgments: line 675, are not stated.
what technique have been used in determination of antibacterial effect?
how many microcapsules containing essential oil have to be used in a water treatment? And how much water can be treated by?

Author Response

Reviewer 2

Thank you reviewer for your acknowledgment.

Following, are given some comments/recommendations on the manuscript body:

Dear Reviewer:

We have adjusted the title to hopefully be more appropriate to the description of the manuscript.

the English grammar should be carefully checked. There are dots in wrong places, or spaces before comma as well.

Dear Reviewer:

We have asked English professionals to assist in proofreading. As proven.

on page 4, line 143: did the authors mean "tea tree essential oil has poor hydrophilicity" instead of "tea tree has poor hydrophilicity"?

Dear Reviewer:

We have revised the narrative in this paragraph. (tea tree essential oil has poor hydrophilicity)

Instead of "medicines" ("Moreover, it obtained eight kinds of medicines...") i would say compounds or chemicals. As well, if the authors affirm "it obtained", were they prepared these chemicals or they bought them?

Dear Reviewer:

We have revised the narrative in this paragraph. (Moreover, it used eight kinds of chemicals.)

what was the reason of using "the two-tube or three-tube microfluidic device"? the given explanation is not very clear and has to be more detailed.

Dear Reviewer:

We have supplemented the narrative in this paragraph. As shown in the content of 2.3.

what does indicate the last row in Table 2? 1M of what kind of cross linking agent was used?

Dear Reviewer:

About this part: We use CaCl2 and ZnCl2 two kinds of reagents, use 3 solvent vehicles, and 3 time differences to carry out 18 combination tests. (We corrected the manuscript narrative, 18 (2*3*3))

"Figure 19. The effect of AlCl3 concentration..": from where AlCl3 appear?

Dear Reviewer:

It is our typo on this part.

the subscripts if molecular formulas have to be checked!
Figures 21, 22, and 23 should be placed in one line. They are too widen.
As well Figures 24, 25, and 26 should be placed in one line. They are too widen.
As well, Figures 27, 28, and 29 should be placed in one line. They are too widen.

Dear Reviewer:

We have rearranged the layout and order to Figure no.24-32. (Original image no.21-29)

for the section 5.1., have the authors any data/results to present in order to prove they affirmations?

Dear Reviewer:

Dear reviewer, 5.1 This paragraph only cites references 23, 28, 39 which are not within the scope of this study.The Author Contributions: line 669

Funding: line 670
Institutional Review Board Statement: line 671
Informed Consent Statement: line 672
Data Availability Statement: line 674
Acknowledgments: line 675, are not stated.

Dear Reviewer:

Regarding the above suggestions, we have reserved the necessary content and supplemented the narrative. Other narratives that do not need to be adopted, we will delete it.

what technique have been used in determination of antibacterial effect?

Dear Reviewer:

The main topic of this study is the discussion of the persistence of tea tree oil release. Which formula is the most effective way to kill bacteria is not discussed in this article.

how many microcapsules containing essential oil have to be used in a water treatment? And how much water can be treated by?

Dear Reviewer:

Dear reviewer, the lab currently uses 5g of microcapsules for one liter of water.

Dear Reviewer:

We thank you again for taking the time to assist in the completion of the manuscript. Best wishes for your work and life.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors

Thank you for considering the comments during review of your manuscript.

I can recommend your revised manuscript for considering publication.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer
We will strengthen the English editing of this revised manuscript, hoping to gain your approval.
We believe this manuscript will be more visual.
We thank you again for your assistance and advice.

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript has been improved, but there are few more recommendations to improve the manuscript before its publication.

Table 4 and the text below contain non-understandable characters. Please write them in English!
Section 2.3.4: Table 4-3 and Figure 4-4 could not be found.
Figures 12-23 are too wide! As well, the authors are advised to combine figures. There are too high number of figures in the manuscript.
Fig. 24, 25, 26: it should be 1 figure with a,b,c notations.
As well for figs. 27,28 and 29.
As well for figs. 30, 31, 32.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer
We have consolidated the pictures in the manuscript according to your suggestion and reordered them. We also add missing information to make the manuscript more complete.
Hope our efforts can gain your approval.
We believe this manuscript will be more visual.
We thank you again for your assistance and advice.

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A Study on the Release Persistence of Microencapsulated Tea Tree Essential Oil in Hotel Hot Spring Water

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