Volatiles Profile of the Floral Organs of a New Hybrid Cymbidium, ‘Sunny Bell’ Using Headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Analysis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The Authors of the manuscript used HS-SPME coupled with GC-MS to characterize the volatile components of a new Cymbidium Hybrid, ′Sunny Bell′ flowers. Main components were identified monoterpenes in the petals and sepals, also as monoterpenes and aliphatics in the column and labellum. The used methodology is correct. Some problems have been found in the manuscript editing. In my opinion the work represents average originality and low significance of content.

Line 23 Cymbidium

Line 41 The table has no description and it is not addressed in the text of the manuscript. The same table is repeated as a "fig.2"

Line 61 The Authors claim that fig1 a) presents the whole plant which is not true.

Line 115 table 3 is bigger than a page so it is impossible to read it.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer #1

Reviewer 1: The Authors of the manuscript used HS-SPME coupled with GC-MS to characterize the volatile components of a new Cymbidium Hybrid, ′Sunny Bell′ flowers. Main components were identified monoterpenes in the petals and sepals, also as monoterpenes and aliphatics in the column and labellum. The used methodology is correct. Some problems have been found in the manuscript editing. In my opinion the work represents average originality and low significance of content.

Line 23 Cymbidium

Line 41 The table has no description and it is not addressed in the text of the manuscript. The same table is repeated as a "fig.2"

Line 61 The Authors claim that fig1 a) presents the whole plant which is not true.

Line 115 table 3 is bigger than a page so it is impossible to read it.

 

First of all, we appreciate your scrupulous reviewing. Your interests were deeply impressed. We tried to fallow your comments and suggestions to revise the manuscript very carefully. Changes were indicated by red color text in the revised manuscript.

 

Comments:

Comment: 1

Line 23 Cymbidium

Response to comment #1

Thank you for the suggestions. According to your suggestion we edited in the revised manuscript. All changes were highlighted in red color text.

Comment: 2

Line 41 The table has no description and it is not addressed in the text of the manuscript. The same table is repeated as a "fig.2"

Response to comment #2

Thank you very much for your pointing out. We mentioned the clear details of table 1 in revised manuscript. In fig.2 we mentioned the evaluation period but table we explained the significance of each character separately.

Comment: 3   

Line 61 The Authors claim that fig1 a) presents the whole plant which is not true.

Response to comment #3

Thank you very much for your pointing out. We totally agree with you. We edited the fig 1 title as Cymbidium plant instead of whole plant in the revised manuscript.

Comment: 4  

Line 115 table 3 is bigger than a page so it is impossible to read it.

Response to comment #4

Thank you very much for your valuable suggestion. We reduced the table 1 and fallowed all changes in the revised manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript reports volatile profile of the floral organs of a new hybrid Cymbidium, ′Sunny Bell′. Headspace solid-phase microextraction was used followed by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry analysis. The study was performed on the headspace volatiles of whole flower,  column, labellum, sepal, and petal. Twenty three components were identified as the main volatiles for the floral; twelve compounds in the  column,  sixteen  compounds in the labellum, eleven compounds in the sepals, and nine compounds in the petals. The most abundant compound was linalool followed by α-pinene, 4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene, eucalyptol,  and 2,6-dimethylnonane. The manuscript reports some novelty regarding new hybrid plant, but needs major improvement. First of all, English language should be improved by native speaker. One example is the sentence in lines 44-45: „Nowaday, it have been breeding to develop for good flavors, fragrances, and colors in the Cymbidium.“  Particular remarks are written further.

 

Than abstract should be more concise containing more results.

 

Discussion is missing biosynthetic origin of the major compounds for other published papers and lines 120-140 are just repeated data from the table, real discussion is missing! Lines 155-156 are offering more data for discussion. However the authors should broaden more the discussion of their obtained results.

 

Page 2, line 41: There is need to add figure and to detail explain the presentation after line 41, especially the codes e.g. ‘00-0390-20“

 

Figure 2. should be explained better, especially the codes.

 

Line 87: „V. [6] reported forty three compounds in the flower of Vicia sativa L. …“- Who is V.?

 

Line 94: „…than 100  m PDMS fiber and similar fibers…“ – something is missing before m PDMS!! Why the authors have not described the characteristics of DVB-CAR-PDMS fiber that was used in their study?? This should be corrected and added in the introduction part.

 

Table 3 is not centred and there is need to correct it since I can note value the obtained data that I do not see in the submission! There is need to correct the compound names: some of them are not correctly written regarding isomers (e.eg. caryophyllene) and some are not written according to IUPAC nomenclature.

 

Line 127: „trans-beta-ocieme“ should be corrected to „trans-beta-ocimene“ (trans-italic)

 

Line 131: again mistake with „trans-beta-ocieme“ – it should be corrected!

 

Line 137:  and again „trans-beta-ocieme“??

 

Line 155: „Wei et al. (2013) reported 21 – 28 compound…“ – beside mentioning the compound classes there is need to list the identified compounds by name. In addition there is need to mention the method that Wei et al (2013) used for isolation of the volatiles since the results can be reliably compared only if the same method is used. If HS-SPME was not used than reliable comparison is not possible.

 

Lines 164-165: „About 70% of the terpenes contributing to of floral scents are attributable  to  linalool.“ – this statement is not clear and it should be elaborated more or omitted.

 

Lines 172-173: „And, (3S)-(E)-nerolidol synthase is a good candidate for a regulatory role in the release of the important signaling molecule 4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene [26].“ – the sentence is not clear and needs improvement.

 

The compounds identified by authentic standards should be marked in the table 3.

 

Author Response

Response to Reviewer #2

First of all, we appreciate your scrupulous reviewing. Your interests were deeply impressed. We tried to follow your comments and suggestions to revise the manuscript very carefully. Changes were indicated by red color text in the revised manuscript.

Comments:

Comment: 1

Than abstract should be more concise containing more results.

Response to comment #1

Thank you for the suggestion. We rewrite the abstract in the revised manuscript.

Comment: 2

Discussion is missing biosynthetic origin of the major compounds for other published papers and lines 120-140 are just repeated data from the table, real discussion is missing! Lines 155-156 are offering more data for discussion. However the authors should broaden more the discussion of their obtained results.

Response to comment #2

Thank you for valuable suggestion. As you suggested we edited the discussion and Changes were indicated by red color text in the revised manuscript.

Comment: 3

Page 2, line 41: There is need to add figure and to detail explain the presentation after line 41, especially the codes e.g. ‘00-0390-20“

Response to comment #3

Thank you very much for your valuable suggestion. We fallowed your suggestions in manuscript.

Comment: 4  

Figure 2. should be explained better, especially the codes.

Response to comment #4

Thank you very much for your pointing out. We edited and explained in the revised version.

Comment:5

Line 87: „V. [6] reported forty three compounds in the flower of Vicia sativa L. …“- Who is V.?

Response to comment #5

Thank you very much for your pointing out. We mentioned the information and reference in the edited manuscript.

Comment: 6

Line 94: „…than 100  m PDMS fiber and similar fibers…“ – something is missing before m PDMS!! Why the authors have not described the characteristics of DVB-CAR-PDMS fiber that was used in their study?? This should be corrected and added in the introduction part.

Response to comment #6

Thank you very much for your valuable suggestion. We edited and corrected the comments above comments.50/30 μm DVB/CAR/PDMS coated SPME fiber attached to a manual SPME holder (Supelco Inc.) was used to extract floral volatiles.

Analytical conditions with the HS-SPME-GC-MS system.

Parameters	Conditions
Fiber	DVB-CAR-PDMS 50/30 mm
Equilibrate time	60 min
Equilibrate   temperature	40 °C
Extraction   temperature	40 °C
Agitator Speed	500 rpm
Extraction Time	30 min
Desorption Time	10 min
GC system	Agilent 7000C GC-MS (Agilent Technologies, Wilmington, DE, USA)
Carrier gas flow	1 mL/min (He)
Injection type	splitless
Injection   temperature	250 °C
Transfer line   temperature	280 °C
Column	DB-5MS column (30 m x 0.25 mm I.D. x 0.25 mm, agilent)
Oven temperature	held at 60 °C for 5 min → 60 °C   to 250 °C at 3 °C/min → finally maintained for 5 min at 280 °C
Ion mode	EI, scan mode (full-scan, m/z 30 to 500)
Electron energy	70 eV

Comment: 7

Table 3 is not centred and there is need to correct it since I can note value the obtained data that I do not see in the submission! There is need to correct the compound names: some of them are not correctly written regarding isomers (e.eg. caryophyllene) and some are not written according to IUPAC nomenclature.

Response to comment #7

Thank you very much for your suggestions. We corrected the table1. in the revised manuscript.

Comment: 8

Line 127: „trans-beta-ocieme“ should be corrected to „trans-beta-ocimene“ (trans-italic)

Line 131: again mistake with „trans-beta-ocieme“ – it should be corrected!

Line 137:  and again „trans-beta-ocieme“??

Response to comment #8

Thank you very much for your pointing out. We corrected fallowed suggestions in the revised manuscript.

 

Comment: 9

Line 155: „Wei et al. (2013) reported 21 – 28 compound…“ – beside mentioning the compound classes there is need to list the identified compounds by name. In addition there is need to mention the method that Wei et al (2013) used for isolation of the volatiles since the results can be reliably compared only if the same method is used. If HS-SPME was not used than reliable comparison is not possible.

Response to comment #9

Thank you very much for your pointing out. We totally agree with you. We mentioned and edited the Cymbidium compounds. We mentioned the HS-SPME methodology part in the revised manuscript. 50/30 μm DVB/CAR/PDMS coated SPME fiber attached to a manual SPME holder (Supelco Inc.) was used to extract floral volatiles.

Comment: 10  

Lines 164-165: „About 70% of the terpenes contributing to of floral scents are attributable  to  linalool.“ – this statement is not clear and it should be elaborated more or omitted.

Response to comment #10

Thank you very much for your valuable suggestion. We explained more detail regarding above statement in revised manuscript.

Comment: 11  

Lines 172-173: „And, (3S)-(E)-nerolidol synthase is a good candidate for a regulatory role in the release of the important signaling molecule 4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene [26].“ – the sentence is not clear and needs improvement.

Response to comment #11

Thank you very much for your valuable suggestion. We rewrite the sentence.

Comment: 12  

The compounds identified by authentic standards should be marked in the table 3.

Response to comment #12

Thank you very much for your valuable suggestion. We fallowed all changes in the revised manuscript.

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors made the requested corrections. However, "alpha", "beta" and other Greek letters in front of the compounds names in the discussion are missing and they should be added.