Indoor plants promise clean indoor air – but do they work?

Indoor plants are a classic decorative element, but indoor leafy greens could also be good for you.

Plant health benefits may include removing toxins like benzene — a volatile organic compound in gasoline known to cause cancer — from indoor air, according to some scientists.

And with air quality on many people’s minds – especially in the post-pandemic era – houseplants are springing up everywhere.

Now, a new study claims that Ambius, a maker of elegant “green walls” that showcase houseplants, has developed a design that removes indoor air pollutants so effectively that 97% of toxic compounds, including Benzene, removed in just eight years hrs.

“This is the first time plants have been tested for their ability to remove petrol-related compounds and the results are amazing,” said Professor Fraser Torpy of the University of Technology Sydney said in a press release.

But other scientists question the supposed ability of plants to purify indoor air with cold water.

In 2019, researchers examined how quickly and effectively plants could remove VOCs.

Their study found that it would take about 10 to 1,000 plants per square meter to improve air quality as much as a typical building ventilation system can.

In a 1,500 square meter house, that corresponds to a dense jungle of at least 680 houseplants.

“Plants do remove VOCs, but they remove them so slowly that they cannot compete with the air exchange mechanisms that are already taking place in buildings,” says Michael Waring, study co-author and an environmental engineer at Drexel University in Philadelphia. said National Geographic.

Another company, Paris-based startup Neoplants, is now selling a “superplant” said to have been genetically engineered to purify the air, along with 30 common houseplants.

Though it looks like a regular pothos houseplant — a familiar ivy with heart-shaped leaves — the Neo P1 retails for $179.

The plant also requires “Power Drops”, bacterial supplements that must be purchased and added to the plant’s soil each month to help further break down VOCs.

“Once you ship a product to someone, the viability of these bacteria decreases,” said Jenn Brophy, a Stanford researcher whose lab is developing genetically engineered crops. said MIT Technology Review.

“It would be so wonderful if we had all these beautiful plants cleaning our air for us,” Elliott Gall, a Portland State University professor of indoor air quality, told National Geographic. “But there are more effective ways to clean indoor air.”