Date Fruit and Seed in Nutricosmetics
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This submission reviews the use and potential use of various parts of the date palm for nutritional and cosmetic uses. Nutritional value and use of date palm parts has been reviewed various times, so the potential cosmetic uses are of the most interest in the submission. It also may be the portion of the submission of most interest to readers of this journal. I would therefore support publication after revision. Specifically, I would like to see more organization. I have a few suggestions for the authors's consideration: (1) use of more sub-headings, (2) condense some of the presentation into tables, and (3) condense the introductory section. English is fairly good but does need some work. There are also stylistic differences (British vs American) within the text. A few more observations: 44 26 - 4 ºC: is this what the authors mean to say? 48 Reference Al-hajjaj and Ayad 2018 not in citations. 49 Phoenix roebelenii is pygmy date palm (not date palm, which is P dactylifera). Lines 49 - 57 refer to P dactylifera. 60 - 61 varieties of P dactylifera not P roebelenii. 49 - 76 should be re-written 148 "chimeric stage to the date stage". Not sure what this means. 178 "Degla" should be "Deglet"Author Response
This submission reviews the use and potential use of various parts of the date palm for nutritional and cosmetic uses. Nutritional value and use of date palm parts has been reviewed various times, so the potential cosmetic uses are of the most interest in the submission. It also may be the portion of the submission of most interest to readers of this journal. I would therefore support publication after revision. Specifically, I would like to see more organization. I have a few suggestions for the authors' consideration: (1) use of more sub-headings, (2) condense some of the presentation into tables, and (3) condense the introductory section.
Answer: We have made more sub-headings and condensed the presentation in Table 1 and Table 4. Also, we have condensed the introduction section according to reviewer suggestion.
English is fairly good but does need some work. There are also stylistic differences (British vs American) within the text.
Answer: We have checked the manuscript for grammatical and typo errors.
A few more observations: 44 26 - 4 ºC: is this what the authors mean to say?
Answer: We have strike outs that sentence and deleted the reference 7.
48 Reference Al-hajjaj and Ayad 2018 not in citations.
Answer: We have included the references Al-hajjaj and Ayad 2018, the replacement of reference 7
49 Phoenix roebelenii is pygmy date palm (not date palm, which is P dactylifera).
Answer: We have updated the corrections.
Lines 49 - 57 refer to P dactylifera. 60 - 61 varieties of P dactylifera not P roebelenii.
Answer: We have updated the correction and deleted the line 60 – 62.
49 - 76 should be re-written
Answer: We have re-written the sentences according to the reviewer’s suggestion.
148 "chimeric stage to the date stage". Not sure what this means.
Answer: We have replaced the word (Khalal stage).
178 "Degla" should be "Deglet"
Answer: We have updated the correction.
Reviewer 2 Report
The work of Khlood Lafi Alharbi, Jegadeesh Raman and Hyun-Jae Shin is a comprehensive overview of information on the use of dates in cosmetics.
As the authors describe the palm tree provides basic food in the Arabian Peninsula and has been recognized as a significant economic crop in the last 7000 years. The authors present the characteristics of individual elements of the date palm, which are used in many industries - food, dietary supplements and cosmetics. Dates have been used in many medicines, also traditional medicine. Next, the authors would like to try to summarize the current knowledge about the date - especially about phytochemical ingredients and use in cosmetics.
The article is well written and organized. The articles selection is transparent, and correct approached. As a result on my evaluation, I do consider that the article is quite good, however I find some minor technical aspects, and I will kindly ask the author to correct them, in a very minor revision.
Firstly I would like disagree with summarized conclusion about safety of natural materials (abstract: "Natural materials are safe, of high quality, and more effective than unnatural, and often toxic, chemicals"). In my practice - I use natural substances, but often - very toxic. Some materials are very harmful to people and animals. And substances that are very "natural", such as mycotoxins, are very toxic (but still natural). I think (I hope, I think) - I understand the authors' concept, but it needs to be clarified.
Next, please verify "the potassium was reported to be in high levels (229–293%).
It would be more valuable if the authors could add information about bioactive compounds present in dates also in numerical form (similarly to the nutritional value or minerals).
And finally, I would recommend a last careful check by the authors - because there are some typos and nitpicking, both - in text & reference sections. And the figure (especially Fig.2) would be more legible.
Author Response
The work of Khlood Lafi Alharbi, Jegadeesh Raman and Hyun-Jae Shin is a comprehensive overview of information on the use of dates in cosmetics.
As the authors describe the palm tree provides basic food in the Arabian Peninsula and has been recognized as a significant economic crop in the last 7000 years. The authors present the characteristics of individual elements of the date palm, which are used in many industries - food, dietary supplements and cosmetics. Dates have been used in many medicines, also traditional medicine. Next, the authors would like to try to summarize the current knowledge about the date - especially about phytochemical ingredients and use in cosmetics.
The article is well written and organized. The articles selection is transparent, and correct approached. As a result on my evaluation, I do consider that the article is quite good, however I find some minor technical aspects, and I will kindly ask the author to correct them, in a very minor revision.
Firstly I would like disagree with summarized conclusion about safety of natural materials (abstract: "Natural materials are safe, of high quality, and more effective than unnatural, and often toxic, chemicals"). In my practice - I use natural substances, but often - very toxic. Some materials are very harmful to people and animals. And substances that are very "natural", such as mycotoxins, are very toxic (but still natural). I think (I hope, I think) - I understand the authors' concept, but it needs to be clarified.
Answer: We have rewritten the sentences according to the comment.
Next, please verify "the potassium was reported to be in high levels (229–293%).
Answer: We have updated the correction (229–293% to 229-293 mg/100g).
It would be more valuable if the authors could add information about bioactive compounds present in dates also in numerical form (similarly to the nutritional value or minerals).
Answer: We have accepted the reviewer's view, but we added that numeric values might increase the references number, so we avoided that.
And finally, I would recommend a last careful check by the authors - because there are some typos and nitpicking, both - in text & reference sections. And the figure (especially Fig.2) would be more legible.
Answer: We have checked the manuscript for grammatical and typo errors and removed few sentences. We also made Fig. 2 more legible.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have improved the submission. A few minor English edits needed.
