Use of Infrared Thermography to Assess Body Temperature as a Physiological Stress Indicator in Horses during Ridden and Lunging Sessions

The Postural and Body Surface Temperature Response of Leisure Horses to Lunging with Selected Lunging Aids

Incorporating lunging into a horse's daily routine aims to enhance fitness, physical condition, and specific skills or exercises when using lunging aids (LAs). To assess the effectiveness of lunging, non-contact technologies like geometric morphometrics and infrared thermography can be employed. This study seeks to evaluate lunging efficiency based on the horse's posture and surface temperature when lunging with different head and neck positions. The study aims to determine if changes in a horse's posture correspond to increased metabolic activity, as indicated by body surface temperature. Thirteen horses included in the study were lunged with chambon (CH), rubber band (RB), and triangle side reins (TRs) as well as with a freely moving head (FMH). Images were taken in visible light and infrared. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to analyze horse posture changes and a Pixel-Counting Protocol (PCP) was used to quantify surface temperature patterns. The horses' posture exhibited contrasting changes, reflected by a changing centroid shape (p < 0.0001) but not size (p > 0.05) when lunged with RB and TRs, but not CH. Different (p < 0.0001) surface temperature patterns were observed during lunging. FMH lunging resulted in lower temperatures over a larger surface, CH induced moderate temperatures on a smaller area, RB caused moderate to high temperatures across a broader surface, and TRs led to higher temperatures over a smaller region. The studied lunging cases returned different (p < 0.0001) surface temperature patterns. Lunging with FMH returned lower temperatures over a larger surface, CH moderate temperatures on a smaller area, RB moderate to high temperatures across a broader surface, and TRs higher temperatures over a smaller region. The proposed methods can be applied to evaluate the efficiency of lunging in horses.

Functions of Representative Terpenoids and Their Biosynthesis Mechanisms in Medicinal Plants

Terpenoids are the broadest and richest group of chemicals obtained from plants. These plant-derived terpenoids have been extensively utilized in various industries, including food and pharmaceuticals. Several specific terpenoids have been identified and isolated from medicinal plants, emphasizing the diversity of biosynthesis and specific functionality of terpenoids. With advances in the technology of sequencing, the genomes of certain important medicinal plants have been assembled. This has improved our knowledge of the biosynthesis and regulatory molecular functions of terpenoids with medicinal functions. In this review, we introduce several notable medicinal plants that produce distinct terpenoids (e.g., Cannabis sativa, Artemisia annua, Salvia miltiorrhiza, Ginkgo biloba, and Taxus media). We summarize the specialized roles of these terpenoids in plant-environment interactions as well as their significance in the pharmaceutical and food industries. Additionally, we highlight recent findings in the fields of molecular regulation mechanisms involved in these distinct terpenoids biosynthesis, and propose future opportunities in terpenoid research, including biology seeding, and genetic engineering in medicinal plants.