Mints are perennial herbs that are cultivated for medicinal and aromatic purposes. They are highly polymorphic and their taxonomy is difficult. Sixty mint accessions, representing seven Mentha species (M. aquatica L., M. longifolia L., M. piperita L., M. pulegium., M. rotundifolia L., M. spicata L. and M. spicata var. crispa 'moroccan'), were collected at full flowering from 51 Tunisian localities. Essential oil yields were found to vary from 0.45 to 2.5 %, (w/w). Analyses of these oils by GC/FID and GC/MS and their subsequent classification by statistical analysis resulted in six clusters with significant variations in their terpenoid compositions: i) pulegone/isomenthone/menthone; ii) isomenthone/pulegone; iii) menthone/pulegone ; iv) piperitenone oxide; v) linalool/linalyl acetate/1,8 cineol/myrcene; and vi) carvone/limonene/1.8 cineol. M. pulegium accessions grouped two chemotypes: one rich in pulegone and the second rich in isomenthone. M. longifolia grouped one chemotype rich in pulegone and a second rich in menthone. M. spicata grouped one chemotypes characterized by a moderate to high carvone content and the second pulegone-rich. M. rotoundifolia accessions were piperitone oxide-rich. M. aquatica and M. piperita have linalool and linalyl acetate as major compounds. These results clearly indicate that there were a large biochemical diversity among the investigated Tunisian Mentha spp. accessions. Genetic and ecological diversities may explain this chemical diversity.We are submitting a paper entitled Essential Oil Chemical Diversity of Tunisian Mentha spp. collection.To start with, Mentha systematic is complicated and often questionable due to natural interspecific hybridation in section Mentha. Despite the importance of genus Mentha as a medicinal and aromatic plant with industrial potentials, research regarding this genus in Tunisia is still limited and few studies have addressed its genetic diversity. The aim of this study was to analyze chemical composition of hydro distilled essential oils of 60 mint accessions, representing seven Mentha species (M. aquatica L., M. longifolia L., M. piperita L., M.pulegium., M. rotundifolia L., M. spicata L. and M. spicata var. crispa 'moroccan'), to determine their essential oil components and further to classify these accessions based on their phytochemical traits.High polymorphism and great diversity was found in essentials oils compositions and several chemotypes are observed in species from various locations We this manuscript, we expect to contribute to this field and hope it will be considered for publication on Industrial Crops and Products. Yours faithfully, Zaineb Soilhi Cover Letter Response to ReviewersWe would like to thank the reviewer for careful and thorough reading of this manuscript and for the thoughtful comments and constructive suggestions, which help to improve the quality of this manuscript. Our response follows.

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Capparis spinosa L. is a perennial shrub and drought‐resistant plant and is well adapted to Mediterranean Ecosystem. Seventeen populations of caper, belonging to different bioclimatic zones, were assessed by morphological descriptors including nine parameters of seed (seed colour, major, medium and minor axial dimension, thousand seed mass, arithmetic mean diameter, geometric mean diameter, surface area and sphericity). The data underwent an analysis of variance, principal coordinate's analysis (PCO) and hierarchical classification analysis (HCA). Results showed that the dimensions of the major, medium and minor axes varied from 2.79 to 3.94 mm, 2.30 to 3.17 mm and 1.66 to 2.36 mm, respectively. The arithmetic and geometric mean diameters ranged, respectively, from 2.66 to 3.16 mm and from 2.19 to 3.05 mm. The sphericity and surface area ranged from 0.38 to 0.40 and from 1.20 to 1.24 mm2, respectively. The thousand seed mass varied from 4.71 to 12.05 g. The analysis of variance of studied descriptors showed significant differences according to the population. Both PCO and HCA generated from Gower general similarity coefficient among all populations showed two distinct clusters each corresponding to one subspecies. Grouping of populations did not reflect bioclimatic patterns, indicating specific adaptation of population to local environments. The divergence between the two caper subspecies (C. spinosa subsp. spinosa and C. spinosa subsp. rupestris), based on morphological traits, corroborates their taxonomic status.

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