Elemental Laser-Plasma Analysis of Pointed Gourd Leaves for Diabetes Management

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Authors are reporting an interdisciplinary work for qualification and quantification bioactive agents. The title “Elemental Laser-Plasma Analysis of Pointed Gourd Leaves for Diabetes Management” itself clearly shows the purpose and the novelty of the work. The reported work is novel and would find good application both for scientific and industrial applications.  

The work is well organized and the chosen concepts are clearly represented. The introduction provides sufficient background and includes relevant references. The concept is clearly presented and well. I would recommend publication in its present form.

I would like to thank all the Authors for their efforts and I kindly ask them to address my comments and suggestions below:

 

1.         The text is clearly written and well presented. The English language and style are fine still an overall spell check would be beneficial.

2.         I would suggest the authors to use their formal e-mail addresses. (Affiliated with their formal institutes). 

3.         Numeric values and/or experimental parameters should not be given at the abstract.  I kindly ask the authors to shape the abstract accordingly.

4.         All figures must be re-adjusted in terms of the figure quality and the readability. For instance figure 6 and 7 do not match up with other plots presented.

5.         I would suggest the authors to better summarize the text and results at the conclusion.

Author Response

Thank you for your comments, the edits are highlighted in the manuscript in blue. Attached is the file RevisionRev1.docx

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have worked on identification and quantification of elements responsible for the bioactive potency of leaves from pointed gourd, using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy. By using these method, they determined the presence of various trace and major elements, their concentrations, and ratios in which they are present in the leaves. Their special interest focus on the presence of specific elemental ratios of magnesium/sodium and magnesium/potassium which could be promising for managing diabetes mellitus. Also, they found the most effective dose of aqueous extract for curing. The obtained results from the study shows that the extract could be harvested to serve as anti-diabetic medication for diabetes and associated symptoms.

I carefully read the manuscript, especially part which are in my expertise, related to LIBS spectroscopy: Determination of the Elemental Composition, Semi-Quantitative Analysis, Quantitative Analysis, Stoichiometric ablation, Optically Thin Plasma, Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium, and I can say that the method of investigation, analyses of obtained experimental results and conclusions are adequate and at correct way performed. Also, the other parts of study which are dominant medical parts seems reasonable for me.

I have no specific objections.

Author Response

Thank you for your review, much appreciated. Please also see the attached file ResponseRev2.docx 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

In the manuscript: “Elemental Laser-Plasma Analysis of Pointed Gourd Leaves for Diabetes Management”, the authors highlighted the use laser induced breakdown spectroscopy as an advanced analytical tool to identify and quantify the elements and their ratios responsible for the medicinal profile of herbs that are part of the ayurvedic system of medicine.

The results are quite interesting, but I think the authors must consider some aspects before publication:

1.     Lines 25-36 – XPS should also be mentioned.

2.     Please add and emphasize the novelty/innovative aspects of this research work in the last paragraph of the introduction. 

3.     Please improve the quality of figure 1.

4.     To better highlight the efficiency and veracity of the data provided by LIBS can you please add a column in table 1, with the values of the elements identified using a standard method, such as XPS, or any other mentioned in the introduction?

5.     How have you established the doses administrated to each group of animals? Have you performed before, in vitro studies on cells ?

6.     References: I think that 34 references are not enough for a research article. Please add more new references, in order to have at least 50 references. Also, the references must be written considering the examples from the template.

7.     Manuscript needs thorough proofreading to correct the typographical and grammatical errors. The English language used needs improvement, as there are some punctuation and grammatical mistakes present throughout the manuscript. E.g.:

·  Line 63: “The anti-diabetic effect of t. diocia leaves extract was recontrichosanthes dioica firmed by conducting” – please reformulate.

·       Line 43: A sentence should never start with a number.

·       Lines 86, 94: Please use the specific symbol for degree Celsius.

·       and so on.

 

Author Response

Thank you for your comments. The edits are highlighted in the manuscript in green. Please also see the file ResponseRev3.docx

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

Evaluation and comments to the manuscript foundations-1957154 entitled " Elemental Laser-Plasma Analysis of Pointed Gourd Leaves for Diabetes

Management"

Authors: Tejmani Kumar, Prashant K Rai, Abhishek K Rai, Nilesh K Rai,

Awadhesh K Rai, Christian Parigger, Geeta Watal, Suman Yadav

 

In this work, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was used to identify and quantify elements responsible for the bioactive power of the leaves of the spiky gourd, trichosanthes dioica. The elemental ratio of  Mg/Na and Mg/K in the aqueous extract of trichosanthes dioica leaves are the same and follow the same trend as reported in traditional medicine that is prescribed for the treatment of diabetic patients. The antidiabetic effect of trichosanthes dioica leaf extract is confirmed by conducting in vivo studies in normal, sub-, mild, and severe diabetes models. Variable doses of the extract were given orally, and the effect on the Blood Glucose Level of selected animals was investigated.

Overall, the article is quite interesting and well and clearly written. I recommend its publication after minor corrections:

1. Harmonize the name and abbreviation of trichosanthes dioica in the article. Somewhere it says trichosanthes dioica, somewhere Trichosanthes dioica, somewhere it is in italics, somewhere not. Also, the abbreviation is shown in multiple forms.

2. Added references in the sample preparation section for the Soxhlet technique, as well as in the Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium section for the McWhirter criterion.

3. Considering that the elements Sr and Si were identified in the trichosanthes dioica sample, why are their wavelengths not shown in Table 1?

4. There is an error in the Saha-Boltzmann equation. I_ij^I should be replaced with I_mn^II.

5. In Figure 4(c) there is an error in the name of the y-axis. A_ij should be replaced with A_ij^II.

6. Figures 6 and 7 should be displayed in the same way in order to more easily follow the influence of the grade doses t. dioica leaves aqueous extract on BGL during GTT in sub-diabetic and mild-diabetic rats.

 

7. In Figure 7, increase the font, dots, and line thickness.

Author Response

Thank you for your comments. The edits are highlighted using the color purple. Please also see the attached file ResponseRev4.docx

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors considered all my recommendations. The manuscript can be published in present form.