Effects of D-Limonene Nanoemulsion Coating on Post-Harvest Quality and Physiology of Papaya

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript " Effects of D-limonene nanoemulsion coating on post-harvest quality and physiology of papaya" is of great importance for extending the storage of climacteric papaya fruits. The papaya fruit has a short shelf life, which is why it is one of the most expensive horticulture products on the world market. Therefore, the study is of great scientific and practical importance. I reckon, structure of the experiments is logical and justified, the methods are adequately described and results are clearly presented. I believe that the manuscript is worthy of publication after correcting minor flaws:

Check and correct the formatting of the paragraphs in the chapters "Introduction" and "Materials and Methods".

There are too many sub-chapters in the chapter "Materials and methods", combine 2.1 and 2.2, as well as 2.2.1 - 2.2.4, 2.2.7.1 - 2.2.7.8.

Line 367 Delete the repeated phrase.

Line 77 Correct the misprint in the text “ASimultaneously”

Line 462 Correct the word “Amongwhich”

Line 468 What do you mean? “Hence, papaya decay was effectively postpone.” (Postponed?)

Please number the list of references in the order in which they appear in the text of the manuscript.

Figure 3 The presented figure is poorly designed, the font is small, it is difficult to read. Change the design of the picture, and position it in the center of the page.

Line 619 It is enough to indicate the reference number.   [41] (Bakkali et al., 2008).

At the end of the manuscript, before the list of references, indicate the section “References”.

Author Response

1. There are too many sub-chapters in the chapter "Materials and methods", combine 2.1 and 2.2, as well as 2.2.1 - 2.2.4, 2.2.7.1 - 2.2.7.8.

Ans. In accordance with the recommendations of the reviewer, we combine 2.1 and 2.2, as well as 2.2.1 - 2.2.4, 2.2.7.1 - 2.2.7.8.

2. Line 367 Delete the repeated phrase.

Ans. Comply with the suggestions of the reviewer, we remove the repeated phrase in line 356.

3. Line 462 Correct the word “Amongwhich”

Ans. We change the word “Amongwhich” to “Among which” in line 449.

4. Line 468 What do you mean? “Hence, papaya decay was effectively postpone.” (Postponed?) Please number the list of references in the order in which they appear in the text of the manuscript.

Ans. The control group showed most rapid decay with a rate of 20% on Day 4. On Day 10, the decay loss quickly increased and exceeded 50%. The second fastest decay loss was in the 0.25% coating treatment group with a loss of 20% on Day 6 (Figure 10). The decay loss of papayas that underwent different coating treatments on Day 10 was only 40%, and 0.5% and 1% coating treatments molding and rotting occurred on days 6-10, and decay loss exceeded 50% near to Day 12. So, papaya decay was effectively postponed.

We already check the references and rearrange it again.

5. Figure 3 The presented figure is poorly designed, the font is small, it is difficult to read. Change the design of the picture, and position it in the center of the page.

Ans. We have enlarged the text in the figure 3 and moved the figure to the center.

6. Line 619 It is enough to indicate the reference number. [41] (Bakkali et al., 2008).

Ans. Comply with the suggestions of the reviewer,  we have modified it in line 726.

7. At the end of the manuscript, before the list of references, indicate the section “References”.

Ans. According to the reviewer's suggestion revised it in line 622.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Material and methods

L114-115 Please write the total number of days of the experiment

L119. Write the 100,000 magnification

 Results

Days or days ?. This is for all the paper

L484 check the space between whereas and the

Discussion

L559 In this study, ascorbic acid content in the control group and 0.25% coating treatment group were lower at the later stage of storage, in feijoa the antioxidant capacity also deceased in shelf life ( J.G. Cruz-Castillo, D. Guerra-Ramírez, F. Famiani, K. E. González-García, O. A. Del Ángel-Coronel, M. Vargas-Ortíz. 2022.  Antioxidant activities in stored fruit, and in flowers of feijoa (Acca sellowiana (Berg) in a tropical zone of Mexico. Acta Horticulturae 1340: 107-112. DOI 10.17660/ActaHortic.2022.1340.16.), whereas the....... 

L 601 please separate the 500 ppm

Please include a few words about practical matters of using this technology in papaya regarding costs for the grower.

Author Response

Material and methods

1. L114-115 Please write the total number of days of the experiment.

Ans. We write the total number of days of the experiment in line 116.

2. Write the 100,000 magnification

Ans. According to the reviewer's suggestion revised it in line 123.

Results

3. Days or days ?. This is for all the paper

Ans. We have checked the Days and days of the entire article, and the words have been used uniformly.

4. L484 check the space between whereas and the

Ans. In accordance with the recommendations of the reviewer, revised it in line 471.

Discussion

5. L559 In this study, ascorbic acid content in the control group and 0.25% coating treatment group were lower at the later stage of storage, in feijoa the antioxidant capacity also deceased in shelf life ( J.G. Cruz-Castillo, D. Guerra-Ramírez, F. Famiani, K. E. González-García, O. A. Del Ángel-Coronel, M. Vargas-Ortíz. 2022. Antioxidant activities in stored fruit, and in flowers of feijoa (Acca sellowiana (Berg) in a tropical zone of Mexico. Acta Horticulturae 1340: 107-112. DOI 10.17660/ActaHortic.2022.1340.16.), whereas the.......

Ans. We added a paragraph of text in line 546-549. In this study, ascorbic acid content in the control group and 0.25% coating treatment group were lower at the later stage of storage, whereas the ascorbic acid content of papayas in the 0.5% and 1% coating treatment groups was higher. Cruz-Castillo et al. [32] reported that feijoa the antioxidant capacity also deceased in shelf life.

6. L 601 please separate the 500 ppm

Ans. According to the reviewer's suggestion revised it in line 592.

 7. Please include a few words about practical matters of using this technology in papaya regarding costs for the grower.

Ans. At present, the technology related to nanoemulsion coating has not been applied to the papaya industry. We estimate that the cost of nanoemulsion coating on each 600g fruit was about $ 0.13 NT.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

It is recommended to improve the quality of figure 4, the symbols do not coincide with those indicated and differ from the other figures.

The text recommends further discussion with reference to the relationship between ethylene production and the other variables studied. Because papaya is a climacteric fruit, respiration and ethylene production are the main drivers of postharvest changes, for this reason it is recommended to broaden the discussion based on respiration and ethylene and how they affect the physiology of the fruit. .

 

It is recommended to standardize the size of some figures, for example figure 3 requires increasing the size of the graph for a better understanding.

Author Response

1. It is recommended to improve the quality of figure 4, the symbols do not coincide with those indicated and differ from the other figures.

Ans. According to the reviewer's suggestion, we already changed the figure 4 and revised it.

 2. The text recommends further discussion with reference to the relationship between ethylene production and the other variables studied. Because papaya is a climacteric fruit, respiration and ethylene production are the main drivers of postharvest changes, for this reason it is recommended to broaden the discussion based on respiration and ethylene and how they affect the physiology of the fruit.

Ans. Ethylene production and respiration rate are explained in lines 559-569, we also added some text on line 569 to 573. Increased ethylene production and accelerated respiration rate lead to shortened fruit life, including rapid ripening, fruit softening, reduction of ascorbic acid and titratable acid content, sugar accumulation, peel color change, etc., while D-limonene nanoemulsion coating reduces ethylene production and respiration rate can achieve the effect of delaying fruit ripening and prolonging storage life.

3. It is recommended to standardize the size of some figures, for example figure 3 requires increasing the size of the graph for a better understanding.

Ans. We have enlarged the text in the figure 3 and increasing the size of the graph. We also check all the graph in the paper.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

In general, the authors proved that the coating with D-limonene nanoemulsion extended the quality of papaya fruit. The researcher is presented in a well-organized and straightforward manner. The only concern I find is in the formulation of the nanoemulsion itself. I would encourage the author to clarify this section of methodology because, as a scientist who has worked with nanoemulsions before, I cannot understand how it was designed, made, and diluted. Please address the comment to line 99.

Line 92: use a uniform format of representing numbers. A numerical representation of numbers, thus 56 ml,  is acceptable in scientific writing.

Line 99: If you use dilution of the whole system, don’t you change the composition of the entire nanoemulsion? What was used as a dilutant? Water? If yes, then you have changed the composition of o/w emulsion, and thus its properties; your coatings will then be different. The water-to-oil-to-surfactant ratio is an essential factor in formulating emulsions that determines the domain's size.

Line 156: unit is missing

170: space missing

It is difficult to see in Figure 4 the axis of graphs in sections B and D, and D is not described in the caption.

Line 509: grammatically, there should be ‘pigments’, not ‘pigment’ in the sentence

Line 557: ascorbic acid is Vitamin C. Vitamin C is not a representative of acorbic acis as it reads at the beginning of the sentence.

Lines 601 and 607 spacing

 

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

English is fine with spacing issues and one place (line 509) that should be adjusted

Author Response

1. The only concern I find is in the formulation of the nanoemulsion itself. I would encourage the author to clarify this section of methodology because, as a scientist who has worked with nanoemulsions before, I cannot understand how it was designed, made, and diluted. Please address the comment to line 99. Line 99: If you use dilution of the whole system, don’t you change the composition of the entire nanoemulsion? What was used as a dilutant? Water? If yes, then you have changed the composition of o/w emulsion, and thus its properties; your coatings will then be different. The water-to-oil-to-surfactant ratio is an essential factor in formulating emulsions that determines the domain's size.

Ans. Thank you for reviewer's suggestions, It was an important point. We address the comment to line 97 to 103. Frist, we dilute emulsion with water, and the required concentration was obtained through the dilution method at the beginning because the lower dose of essential oil could not be fully integrated with tween 80. So, we prepared 10% emulsion and then diluted it to the required concentration. Because after reducing the dose of essential oil, it was necessary to increase the dose of tween 80, which will lead to a non-fusion state. Of course, after dilution, it will affect the composition and characteristics of the emulsion, and we will consider this part in the future.

2. Line 92: use a uniform format of representing numbers. A numerical representation of numbers, thus 56 ml, is acceptable in scientific writing.

Ans. In accordance with the recommendations of the reviewer, revised it in line 89.

3. Line 156: unit is missing

Ans. According to the reviewer's suggestion revised it in line 155.

 4. Line 170: space missing

Ans. We changed theindophenol to the indophenol in line 169.

5. It is difficult to see in Figure 4 the axis of graphs in sections B and D, and D is not described in the caption.

Ans. We already revised the figure 4 in line 358.

6. Line 509: grammatically, there should be ‘pigments’, not ‘pigment’ in the sentence

Ans. According to the reviewer's suggestion revised it in line 496.

7. Line 557: ascorbic acid is Vitamin C. Vitamin C is not a representative of acorbic acis as it reads at the beginning of the sentence.

Ans. Comply with the suggestions of the reviewer, revised it in line 544.

8. Lines 601 and 607 spacing

Ans. We revised it in line 592 and 598.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx