Search

The aromatic odor of Plectranthus hadiensis var. tomentosus has been found to have the potential to improve physical and mental health of people in indoor environment, but its effectivess is reduced for that the release of volatile organic compounds from plants is susceptible to indoor environmental changes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the response of volatile organic compounds released by P. hadiensis var. tomentosus to common indoor environmental changes, and to provide a scientific basis for its efficient and sustainable application in building a comfortable pro-biotic environment to improve the physical and mental health of indoor personnel. Thus, the effects of four typical indoor environmental factors, such as air temperature, air relative humidity, CO2 concentration and light variation, on the release of volatile organic compounds from P. hadiensis var. tomentosus were investigated in this study. And the dynamic headspace and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry techniques were used to analyze the volatile organic compounds in different indoor environments with an environmental control device based on mixed-level orthogonal array design. The results were as follows:(1)Among the four typical indoor environmental factors of air temperature, air relative humidity, CO2 concentration and light condition, CO2 concentration and air temperature had greater effects on the release of volatile organic compounds from P. hadiensis var. tomentosus, while the effects of air relative humidity and light were weak.(2)For P. hadiensis var. tomentosus cultivated under normal photoperiod, an environmental condition with CO2 concentration of 500 μmol·mol-1, air temperature of 25 ℃ and air relative humidity of 60% was the most suitable for releasing volatile organic compounds from P. hadiensis var. tomentosus in the absence of light. Under this environmental condition, the total amount of volatile organic compounds released by P. hadiensis var. tomentosus was 86.23 μg·L-1·kg-1, and the content of biological active components with potentials for the positive intervention of physical and mental health was 78.03 μg·L-1·kg-1. In summary, the results suggest that when the aroma plant P. hadiensis var. tomentosus is used to build an indoor pro-biotic environment to maintain or improve the physical and mental health of people in indoor, the environmental conditions should be controlled properly, especially CO2 concentration and air temperature, so as to fully and efficiently produce the positive health benefits from P. hadiensis var. tomentosus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing environment has become a driving factor on hen health, egg quality and efficient production in intensive poultry industry. In large layer poultry housing system, an environmental index is typically used to control air conditions, including air temperature (T), relative humidity (RH) and concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in different season. In hot seasons, thermal environment of laying hen housing is usually assessed using the temperature humidity index (THI) via the online monitored temperature and relative humidity. However, the simple assessment cannot meet the harsh requirement of indoor air quality in a large layer house, as the stocking density increases in recent years. In this paper, a comprehensive environmental index (CEI) was proposed based on the radar map to integrate the impacts of both thermal and air quality factors, in order to systematically assess the environment comfort of the birds. A LabVIEW software system was selected to illustrate the environmental comfort using the fuzzy mathematics. Five key environmental factors, including temperature, RH, air velocity, concentration of CO2 and ammonia (NH3), were used to evaluate the environmental comfort of laying hen housing, where the their weights were normalized in a radar map. In the visualized system, early warning can be delivered when either a single factor or the CEI was over the prescribed value, and thereby a quick action can be taken to adjust the environmental conditions in the layer housing to a comfort level. A field measurement was carried out at a commercial layer breeder farm in Hebei province from January to February, and from July to August, 2019. The experimental results indicated that a good performance of the CEI can be obtained to assess the comprehensive environment in the tested house via monitoring the five environmental indexes. The specific sensors were properly settled in the henhouse. The data of environmental conditions was collected to verify, and then the maximum of five indexes were selected for later use. During the summer daytime, the CEI agreed well with the THI, indicating the positive impacts of thermal environment on the comfort of the birds, while it performed better to integrate the thermal and air quality at night time. In winter, the increase in the weight of CO2 concentration can contribute to the CEI for the comfort in layer housing system. The in situ monitoring data in the actual use demonstrated that the CEI can efficiently represent the change of comprehensive environmental comfort in the chicken house, and respond to the interaction between environmental factors in each period, especially when the air quality has an increasing influence on the comprehensive environmental comfort at night in summer and in winter. The findings can provide a promising method to systematically evaluate the housing environment via the five key factors in laying hen housing, further to improve the birds comfort via precisely controlling the air conditions in intensive poultry production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]