The pot plants that could clean up the air in your home

They brighten up our homes and cheer up our offices. But house plants also clean up the air that we breathe.

Research has shown that popular pot plants also absorb dangerous chemicals, leaving the air cleaner for us to breathe.

One of the best ‘natural air fresheners’ is Guzmania lingulata, or the scarlet star, a colourful and tropical type of bromeliad which blooms for months indoors.

Others include the corn plant (Dracaena fragrans) which boasts long, variegated leaves that are particularly good at mopping up acetone, the pungent chemical in nail varnish remover.

The work comes amid mounting concern about the damage done by indoor air pollution, including toxins called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which released by everything from paint and printers to cleaning chemicals and dry-cleaned clothes.

The research estimated that indoor air pollution contributes to 99,000 deaths every year.

Plus, many people believe they suffer from ‘sick building syndrome’, in which stagnant, polluted air is blamed for triggering everything from headaches to skin allergies and fatigue.

The researchers said: ‘Buildings, whether new or old, can have high levels of VOCs in them, sometimes so high you can smell them.’

The scientists placed five different pot plants in a sealed chamber pumped full of VOCs and monitored how levels of the chemicals changed over time.

Tests involving five common house plants and eight VOCs found that certain plants are better at absorbing specific compounds.

For example, all five could remove acetone, the pungent chemical abundant at nail salons, but the dracaena plant took up the most, around 94 per cent of the chemical.

The best all-rounder was the scarlet star, a member of the bromeliad family.

Study leader Dr Vadoud Niri said: ‘Based on our results, we can recommend what plants are good for certain types of VOCs and for specific locations.

‘To illustrate, the bromeliad plant was very good at removing six out of eight studied VOCs – it was able to take up more than 80 per cent of each of those compounds – over the twelve hour sampling period.

 ‘So it could be a good plant to have sitting around in the household or workplace.’

The other three plants studied were the jade plant (Crassula argentea), the spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) and the Caribbean tree cactus (Consolea falcate

Dr Tijana Blanusa, said: ‘Psychological benefits of indoor plants have been shown through the improved mood of people exposed to them, reduced stress levels, increased worker productivity in the working population, and increased pain tolerance, for example, where plants were used in hospital settings.

‘Indoor plants can also elicit a number of physical health benefits, including the removal of airborne pollutants, leading to better indoor air quality and associated improvements in physical health.’

Source: Daily mail

N.H.Kh