Residues of the Acaricides Abamectin, Hexythiazox, and Spiromesifen in Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) Fruits Grown under Field Conditions in Najran, Saudi Arabia
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Title: ok
Abstract: ok
Keywords: The words acaricide and eggplant are already on the title. Choose other.
Introduction:
Line 44: scientific name must be in italic.
Line 46: “more than 57k tons “
Line 47: I miss a connection of the end of this paragraph with the next. Maybe you can cite the most used insecticides in that crop in Saudi Arabia.
Line 48: remove the figure 1. Unnecessary.
Line 53: remove the word New.
Paragraph 48-60: as I said before, I think there is a lack of connection between the previous paragraph and this one. You should make a sentence to link both paragraphs.
Line 62-64: why instead of “There are limited data on residue distribution of abamectin, hexythiazox, and spiromesifin in/on eggplant fruit under field and green- house conditions.” You don’t use something like: “consumers are afraid of the residue levels of these pesticides on eggplants in Saudi Arabia, but the data on these levels are still poor” (something like that, is just an idea to improve).
Line 64 to 67: make something like that: “Residues of abamectin, spiromesifen, and hexythiazos were determined, at different time intervals, in green beans and peppers [10,11], in chili and okra [12, 13], and in bean pods and strawberry fruit [14, 15], respectively.”
Line 67: remove “after field application” – Starts with: Pesticide spraying residue analysis…
Line 72: remove Quechers
Line 75-76: what are all those abbreviations? You should explain them the first time.
Objective: Ok.
REMOVE FIGURE 1. NO NEED FOR THAT.
Methodology:
Line 119: what the abbreviation stands for? I know it must be common sense for chemists, but this is a agriculture journal. So write the meaning of those abbreviation.
Line 130: UHPLC = ultra high performance liquid chromatography . again, the same as before.
Line 164: write like this: “We sprayed eggplants with abamectin…..”
Results and Discussion:
Line 220: It seems a little bit strange to me to call a figure that is not on the paper. This is difficult for the reader. If that result is really important, the figure must be on the paper, if not, you should not mention it.
Line 226-227: this sentence looks like is missing something. Rewrite.
Line 232: the same as line 220.
Line 248-253: this should be in the methodology section, not on results.
Line 333: what the half-life of 2.4 days means in management and harvest practices? Should they wait a bit more to harvest? Should consumers be aware? Discuss that. Do the same of the other pesticides.
Line 345: do you have to use (t ½) everytime you mention the word halflife?
Line 410-412: this should be in the methods section.
Line 432: you miss the dot at the end of the sentence.
Author Response
Please see the attached
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper entitled "Residues of the acaricides abamectin, hexythiazox, and spiromesifen in eggplant (Solanum melongena L) fruits grown under field conditions in Najran, Saudi Arabia", the authors are trying to develop a dispersive liquid-liquid extraction technique for the analysis of acaricides in eggplants.
1. line 227, is there any reason that chose 5mM and 10mM as start concentration?
2. line 250, 10 Minutes should be 10 minutes.
3. What stage of the eggplant was used for the testing? Are those acaricides have different effect on different ages of the eggplant?
4. Normally residues are different in different part of the fruit/vegetables. For example, apple, at the two ends of the fruit, the pesticide residues are the most. So what part of the eggplant was used for the analysis?
5. Is there any IC50 or EC50 tested for three of the acaricides?
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
