Can indoor plants purify air and improve your health?

There are many benefits to having indoor plants in your home. They help with mental health; they make a room feel more inviting, they can provide you with beautiful eye candy, and most importantly they make the home they are in more comfortable.

However, some people also say that they help purify the air and rid us of indoor air pollutants. But is that really true?

Do indoor plants purify air and how do indoor plants purify air?

The average person spends 90% of their time indoors, and that lack of exposure to the sun’s natural ultraviolet rays may contribute to many health problems. Thus, people are keen to improve their indoor air quality. Research into how this affects humans has just started, but there is evidence that plants can play a role in purifying indoor air.

Let’s get a little technical here. Research has shown that plants act as biofilters by capturing airborne particulates like dust, pollen, smoke and mould spores. Most biofilter-related processes occur in the rhizosphere. The rhizosphere is where root fluids and soil microorganisms interact with the soil environment. The plant alone supports millions of microorganisms in the rhizosphere. More microorganisms live in the rhizosphere than elsewhere. But why are microbes vital? The same way plants do in a natural, pre-development setting, microorganisms breakdown and transfer contaminants into less hazardous forms for plant absorption through chelation for plant uptake. Microorganisms, for example, degrade hydrocarbons, sequester metals, and recycle carbon for new cell material. Microorganisms change the rhizosphere soil chemistry to improve pollution clearance. Plants increase soil organic matter through decomposing biomass, including roots, known as cell sloughing, which supplies a carbon source to soil microbes. Mycorrhizae fungi also build a symbiotic association with plant roots, excreting sugars for the fungus while the plants get “pollutants” in the form of nutrients for biomass formation. Mycorrhizai fungi increase root surface area, which improves phosphorus, nitrogen, and metal absorption, all essential macro and micro nutrients for plant development and reproduction.

According to NASA studies, plants remove up to 87 percent of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the air every 24 hours. Formaldehyde, benzene, and trichloroethylene are examples of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (both found in man-made fibers, inks, solvents and paint). Benzene and formaldehyde can be eliminated by plants, which are commonly present in plastics, textiles, pesticides, and cigarette smoke, among other things. 

Sounds good, right? After all we all want to get rids of indoor air pollutants.  Well the issue is the capacity of a plant to do so and the truth is that it would take a lot of plants to sufficiently improve indoor air quality. If you want to improve the air quality in your home, you’ll need between 10 and 1000 plants per square foot. Some people even speculate that potting soil and its ability to clean or aerate interior air, rather than the plant’s leaves, may have contributed to research results.

To make matters worse, the list of toxins in our air is ever-growing. We may have a lot of toxins already, but it’s likely that there are more that we don’t know about and how they interact with plants.

However, others disagree that the evidence is clear. BuildingEcology.com editor Hal Levin co-authored an article on plants and indoor air quality, the findings were a mixed bag of positives at best, and in certain situations, house plants may even be detrimental. Luz Claudio, a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, says that plants can remove volatile chemical toxins from the air “under laboratory conditions.” But the idea that a few plants in your house or workplace can filter the air isn’t supported by any serious science in the real world.

Do indoor plants have other health effects?

As mentioned earlier, many people have heard that indoor plants have the potential to purify the air of toxins. But this is not the only health-related advantage they have. Indoor plants provide some emotional, psychological, and even physical benefits. They also help reduce stress levels and combat depression.

We all know from school that plants make oxygen through photosynthesis. This process is called “respiration.” The other way plants make oxygen is by using carbon dioxide and water.

In general, plants need sunlight to photosynthesize, so you would think they should be placed in a window with a lot of natural light. Although bright, sunny spaces appear ideal for houseplants, not all plants are able to withstand intense sunlight. Leaf burn or wilting and death can occur when houseplants are exposed to full light, especially in the summer.

Plants also emit water vapour as part of their photosynthetic and respiratory activities, which cause the surrounding air to become more humid. Most of the water that a plant takes in is expelled. Adding a few plants to a room can help keep respiratory issues at bay by increasing the space’s humidity.

Finally, and perhaps most impressively Indoor plants have a positive impact on wellbeing 

Indoor plants have been demonstrated to provide a number of psychological advantages. These include reduction of stress and a more positive frame of mind. Additionally, research has shown that pain tolerance has improved (for example, where plants were used in hospital settings)

Indoor plants have been found to provide physical health advantages such as lower blood pressure and a reduction in tiredness and headaches.

But do Indoor plants produce carbon dioxide?

There is an urban myth around this topic that causes one ask do indoor plants release carbon dioxide at night? Probably whilst flinging open all the windows in the house for safety.

Again, basic biology at school taught us that any plant uses carbon dioxide as a source of energy and emit oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis. It’s natural for plants and humans to work together because of the opposing pattern of gas usage. Increased oxygen levels can be achieved by adding plants to interior areas. Night-time respiration is common for all organisms. Plants take oxygen and expel carbon dioxide as they do so.

There are certain plants – like orchids – that do exactly the opposite: They take in carbon dioxide and expel oxygen. To keep the air in your room fresh while you sleep, place these plants in your room. You don’t have to worry about releasing too much carbon dioxide in your bedroom by keeping a few plants in there. It would take a lot to cause you a problem.

Conclusion

So do indoor plants improve air quality? Well, house plants are useful in controlling indoor air pollution? Well, it is best you don’t buy plants solely for improving the air you breathe.  Sure, they will help, to a small degree, unless you can create a jungle in your house that is. But most of us want a few house plants about to lift our mood and be a talking point. And there are plenty of plants on the market that can do that.