Essential Oils of Ocimum basilicum L. and Ocimum americanum L. from Djibouti: Chemical Composition, Antimicrobial and Cytotoxicity Evaluations

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

See the attachment for comments.

 

Comments for author File: Comments.docx

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,
You will find attached the answers and comments to the questions and remarks proposed by your honorable benevolence.
In a favorable follow-up, our team thanks you and please accept our greetings.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

page 1 line 43 . sauphistic spelling is wrong 

line 43. sentence can be rearranged 

page 2 line 89. whether  two detectors were used in study, if so confirm the specification 

page 3 line 96. spelling of  petrie dish is wrong

page no 5 . check the compound name Phyton

page 11 line no 217. rewrite the sentence

page 11 line no 217-219 check grammar 

page 11 line no 233 delete 'which' from the sentence 

page 11 line no 235-237 grammar mistake in sentence

 

 

 

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,
On behalf of our team, I thank you for the time you have taken to correct our manuscript.
You find below the answers of all the questions and the comments that you gave us for the improvement of work.
In a favorable result, please accept our sincere greetings.

 

page 1 line 43 . sauphistic spelling is wrong

the word has been changed

 

line 43. sentence can be rearranged

the sentence has been changed

 

page 2 line 89. whether  two detectors were used in study, if so confirm the specification

a more detailed paragraph has been added to explain the specifications of the analyzes by the detectors

 

page 3 line 96. spelling of  petrie dish is wrong

We have corrected the scientific word

 

page no 5 . check the compound name Phyton

indeed, we made a mistake in the writing of the compound, after the revision of the spectra, it is Methyl crotonate

 

page 11 line no 217. rewrite the sentence

the sentence has been redone

 

page 11 line no 217-219 check grammar

the sentences have been redone

 

page 11 line no 233 delete 'which' from the sentence

the word has been deleted

 

page 11 line no 235-237 grammar mistake in sentence

we rewrote the paragraph

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The author obtained the essential oils of Ocimum basilicum L. and Ocimum americanum L. from Djibouti through hydrodistillation and analysed the chemical composition by GC-MS. The antibacterial test with 12 different kinds of bacteria and cytotoxicity tests with 13 different kinds of cells were carried out to get further study. This work showed promising anticancer effects of both oils against total cell lines, however antibacterial effect only against Streptococcus agalactiae.

This study has done a lot of work in the chemical composition and application of essential oils from the two plants. It is guiding significance to further study these two plants. However, the structure of the article is a bit confused, and the figures and tables are not scientific enough to make it difficult for readers to get the relevant information. Therefore, I recommended this work can be accepted after major revision need to be made listed as follows:

1. For the introduction, the research background is too simple. For example, the author wrote in the article“Essential oils are extracted mainly by steam distillation, but can also be prepared by dozens of sauphistic methods by controlling several operations such as by grinding, solvent, temperature, pressure, humidity…”I suggest the author should cite some literature to illustrate these methods. The following introduction about the composition and efficacy of essential oils, there is also such a problem.

2. The third paragraph of the introduction, the authors should give a detailed description of the current research progress of the genus Ocimum, using tables or figures to show the contents rather than simply listing some numbers.

3. For 2.1. Essential oils, the author claims to use steam distillation to extract essential oil from the two plants. Please write down the detailed of the operation process.

4. For 2.3. Antibacterial test, the authors claim to have used commercial antibiotics as a positive control. It is recommended that the authors write the type of antibiotic here rather than in the figures note later.

5. For Figure 1, Did the authors consider the interaction between the four substances in the same Petri dish?  In addition, it is also suggested to put the figures of the other two bacteria with positive reaction into the article.

6. For 3.3. Cytotoxicity activity, why did the authors choose this concentration range from 10 to 0.005 µg/mL? Also, were all 13 kinds of cell experiments conducted at this concentration range? If so, have the authors considered that different cells differ in their tolerance to essential oil concentrations?

7. For Figure 2 and Figure 3, it is recommend that the authors use bar graphs or other forms to represent this content, because the images in the manuscript are too many and not clear enough. It is difficult for readers to get the information they want.

8. For the Discussions, it is suggested that the authors better discuss their own research results, especially what further contributions they have made compared with previous studies

9. For conclusions, the author needs to revise and present the main results of the article. In addition, some prospects are given in this part.

10. For the References, it is advised the authors to cite more articles on Processes.

11. There are some formatting errors in the article, please further modify according to the requirements of the magazine.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,
You will find in the attached document the answers to questions and comments suggested according to your high scientific quality.
In a positive response on our manuscript, please accept our greetings.
Cdly

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

I have reviewed the manuscript processes-1897443submitted to Processes. Authors have investigated some biological activity of two Ocimum species from Djibouti. The work is interesting and has a good results. There is some point that should be addressed before publication.

 - Line 14 and 16: Ocimum is the genus name of the plants and should be written in italic form… if possible use the common name of basil plants. Apply this in whole the manuscript.

- There are some report that show estragole has mutagenic effects. Do your results reject this claim?  

-The introduction is needed to be supported with the latest refs, to improve please support these refs regarding anticancer and anti-microbial activity of essential oil. You can check the following manuscripts:

Campana, R., Tiboni, M., Maggi, F., Cappellacci, L., Cianfaglione, K., Morshedloo, M.R., Frangipani, E. and Casettari, L., 2022. Comparative analysis of the antimicrobial activity of essential oils and their formulated microemulsions against foodborne pathogens and spoilage bacteria. Antibiotics, 11(4), p.447.

Morshedloo, M.R., Quassinti, L., Bramucci, M., Lupidi, G. and Maggi, F., 2017. Chemical composition, antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity on tumour cells of the essential oil from flowers of Magnolia grandiflora cultivated in Iran. Natural product research, 31(24), pp.2857-2864.

 

- Materials and method section:

GC-MS section: Column type should be HP-5 MS… please double check.  

Authors must be explaining some aspects about how was the identification and quantification process performed:  

a)        Do you use commercial pure standards? Which were the compounds whose commercial standards were not available? Compounds with the similar chemical structure were used?

b)        Quantification process was based on calibration curves? The performance of the

analytical method (linearity, selectivity, LOD, LOQ, …) should be given.

-How the authors calculated the RI?

The authors should add the RI for the identified components. RT will change for each component based on programmed column temperature and is not valid.  

-The manuscript should be reviewed for proper English language spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

 

 Scientific names should be written in italic form

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,
In the file attached, you find the requested corrections to our manuscript.
We thank you for the added scientific quality of our work.
Cordially

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

1) Check in the text: the name of the author who described the species (L., for example) must not be written in italics.

2) The first time a species is cited, it must be cited in full (e.g. Ocimum basilicum L.). Subsequently it is sufficient to indicate it in abbreviated form (O. basilicum).

3) INTRODUCTION. Since the authors state that "ethnobotanical criteria" (Discussion, lines 201-203) were used for the choice of the two plants in question, please describe them, albeit briefly. Also indicate some appropriate studies on the uses of the Ocimum species in traditional medicine in general and, specifically, in that of Djibouti or neighboring areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

For example: Hassan-Abdallah, A.; Merito, A.; Hassan, S.; Aboubaker, D.; Djama, M.; Asfaw, Z.; Kelbessa, E. Medicinal plants and their uses by the people in the Region of Randa, Djibouti. J. Ethnopharmacol. 2013, 148, 701–713.

4) DISCUSSION. Line 218: It seems that the references [3;10] are not related to the genus Ocimum. Please check carefully or choose other references.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,
On behalf of our team, we thank you for the scientific remarks to improve our manuscript.
You will find below the comments of all the 4 proposed remarks.
In a favorable response, please consider our greetings.

 

1) Check in the text: the name of the author who described the species (L., for example) must not be written in italics.
The requested changes are made.

2) The first time a species is cited, it must be cited in full (e.g. Ocimum basilicum L.). Subsequently it is sufficient to indicate it in abbreviated form (O. basilicum).
Another reviewer asked us to provide the names of the two medicinal plants in abbreviated form.

3) INTRODUCTION. Since the authors state that "ethnobotanical criteria" (Discussion, lines 201-203) were used for the choice of the two plants in question, please describe them, albeit briefly. Also indicate some appropriate studies on the uses of the Ocimum species in traditional medicine in general and, specifically, in that of Djibouti or neighboring areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
The ethnobotanical criteria was made according to a selection of more than 100 medicinal plants from different regions of Djibouti, all the data remains confidential in public bodies.
Regarding the use of the Ocimum species in traditional medicine, we have cited some purposes that are known throughout Djibouti such as:Hypoglycemic, antispasmodic, analgesic and hypotensive, antipyretic, anticancer

4) DISCUSSION. Line 218: It seems that the references [3;10] are not related to the genus Ocimum. Please check carefully or choose other references.
we have added bibliographical references that describe the use in traditional medicine of Ocimum

Reviewer 3 Report

The author has made major improvement to the article and made it much better than before, but I still have a suggestion.

For 2.1. Essential oils, the detailed of the steam distillation operation process means specific experimental parameters such as the weight of the plants, the volume of water, the temperature and time. This will enable readers to better refer to the content of your article.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

You will find below the answers to the questions you proposed for the improvement of the manuscript.

Best regards.

 

paragraph 2.1. 
Essential oils, the detailed of the steam distillation operation process means specific experimental parameters such as the weight of the plants, the volume of water, the temperature and time. This will enable readers to better refer to the content of your article.

Line 81 and line 83: we have added some parameters concerning the distillation process.

 

Reviewer 4 Report

Accept

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,
On behalf of our team, we thank you for the scientific efforts to improve our manuscript through relevant first-round comments and acceptance of publication.
Cordially.