A Review on the Potential Use of Medicinal Plants from the Apiaceae and the Rosaceae Families in Cardiovascular Diseases—Experimental Evidence and Traditional Applications

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

 A Review on the Potential Use of Medicinal Plants from Apiaceae and Rosaceae Family in Cardiovascular Diseases - Experimental Evidence and Traditional Applications

Rafał Celiński, Barbara Krzemińska, Anna Grzywa-Celińska, Gabriela Szewczyk, and Katarzyna Dos Santos Szewczyk                                                                                    

This is a well written review and will serve a good resource for scientists working in the area of natural products/phytochemicals for medical applications. The strategy adopted to obtain all the relevant information for this review had been well thought of and reliable.

Although all the tables presented in this review are fit for purpose, I suggest the authors to give a brief introduction before each table to lead the readers. It is not easy to go through each table (4 of them) without any discussion why they are there in the first place.

To add value to the review, I suggest the authors to include a section which covers what are the main phytochemicals present (with the relevant chemicals structures) in the Apiaceae and Rosaceae Family. Then the authors can refer to this section in their discussion. For example, terpenes, terpenoids and alkaloids were mentioned to contribute to the hypotensive and vasorelaxant properties of plant extracts. Other bioactive compounds were also highlighted throughout the whole discussion section. Hence to have a section with their general chemical structures of those phytochemicals would be very useful.  

Page 34, discussion section, line 243. Statement related to the ‘ACE binds to the substrate additional to the zinc ion in the com-242 plex, causing polarization of the carbonyl group, thereby supporting a nucleophilic attack 243 that promotes increased blood pressure’. A relevant figure depicting this reaction would be very useful.  

Section 4.1.4. Diuretic. Did the authors in reference 44, mention which group of phytochemicals are responsible the diuretic effect? The same question applies to section 4.1.6. Anti-Thrombotic, 4.1.8. Hypolipidemic.

4.1.9. Antioxidant Activity, line 368-370. I think authors should highlight how antioxidant properties was determined in vivo?

In section 4.2.1. CRATAEGUS (HAWTHORN) SP, line 405 ‘……….. the dry ethanol 45 % (w/w) extract (dry extract ratio = 4–6.6:1) ………….’ Can the ratio be checked again? Is it from 4.0 to 6.6:1? Please clarify

It would be good if authors are consistent with providing concentration of extract when discussing activity (both in vitro and in vivo).

Section 4.2.4. CORIANDRUM SATIVUM. Line 446-456, I assume Wang and co-authors used quercetin and kaempferol as positive controls to explain the positive results from extract of CORIANDRUM SATIVUM. Can this be made clearer?

Section 4.2.5. ANETHUM GRAVEOLENS. Provide concentration of extract used in the study!

The quality of the English language is very good. I recommend further proof reading to enhance clarity.

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

1.      Tables must be improved. The information of the columns are mixed.

2.      in vivo, in vitro and the scientific names of all plants should be written in italics.

3.      Family names are not italicized.

4.      Line 430. Amiodarone was invented, isolated or synthesized?.

5.      Line 432. What is condorane?.

6.       Lines 447-456 and 519-537 described the activity of pure quercetin, kampferol, tutin, (-) epicatechin and chlorogenic acid, but it is not explained why these compounds were included.

Lines 565-580 are results not conclusions

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

The review article is very interesting and easy to read and understand. Minimal corrections are necessary:

Introduction: line 116 star anise: is incorrect, as this corresponds to illicium verum. Correct: must be aniseed (P. anisum).

Table 1: where Reference (17) is cited: vasrelaxant, correct to vasorelaxant

Line 234

4.1.2. Vasodilator, Vasorelaxant, Vasodilation Action, Anti-Vasospasm: In my opinion, it should be: Vasodilator, Vasorelaxant, Anti-Vasospasm

Line 303, 307, 308, 317, 323: the scientific name of the plants must be in italics

Line 402-403 delete the publication title (reference 118)

Conclusion: limit yourself to mentioning the conclusions and not text that has already been mentioned in the body of the document, in addition, eliminate the citation (references also already mentioned in the text). Also delete the name of the authors mentioned in this section.

Author Response

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Reviewer 4 Report

This review summarized the potential of medicinal plants from Apiaceae and Rosaceae Family in cardiovascular diseases. The following problems must be addressed:

1. The length of this review is too much redundant. At least two parts could be shortened. One is the introduction section for the epidemiology of CVD and the second is the Discussion section 4.1 subsections. In the epidemiology of CVD (Introduction section), authors repeatedly talked about how much severely that CVD is affecting human health. I suggest authors shorten this section. Instead, authors are encouraged to add more essential lists for CVD subentities such as cardiomyopathy (PMID: 29431384). Moreover, in the Discussion 4.1 subsections, authors firstly introduced the mechanisms underlying each disease (phenotype) and then summarized the plants from the Apiaceae and Rosaceae Family that may have protective effects. The problem here is that the two parts seem to be irrelevant and separate (for example, line 213-224 seems to be irrelevant with line 225-233). Authors need to re-organize their paragraphs.

2. In the introduction section, authors mentioned many types of medicinal plants have medical applications without introducing the potential medicinal use of phytocannabinoids which have already been shown to have functions in multiple CVDs (PMID: 35739093). Also in this section, the space should be deleted in line 93 (after "of" and before "approximately").

3. In Table 1 and Table 2, the category "Mechanism of action" is not accurate since authors did not describe their mechanisms. Use of "cardiovascular activity" might be more suitable. A line is missing for Table 2 categories (Line 186) in order to present a trilinear chart. 

4. Line 291, the "cardiomycetes" should be corrected as "cardiomyocytes".

5. Line 556, the "using" should be corrected as "used".

6. Check the unit for Agrimonia eupatoria (0.25-1.00ml/kg，ref [74]). 

Author Response

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Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

There are many typographical errors

The tables are confusing, the columns are mixed up. In some cases  are reported extracts in other one or several compounds, and it did not mention the composition of this mixture.

The units of concentration, rather doses, are confused, for example: for Ammi visnaga  the concentration is 10-6 M-10-4M?

For Ammodaucus leu-cotrichus the concentration is oral administration of 60 and 100 mg/kg body weight for 6 h for the acute experiment and over 7 days ?

Then, the tables must be improved.

Author Response

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Reviewer 4 Report

all problems addressed

Author Response

Thank you, dear Reviewer.

Sincerely Yours,

      Authors

Round 3

Reviewer 2 Report

Suggested corrections were made