Hot Tip: The Best Plants for Indoor Air Quality

We've blogged about this before, but thought it worth revisiting. According to researcher Kamal Meattle, an arrangement of three common houseplants, used in specific spots in a home, can result in measurably cleaner indoor air. See what they are after the jump ...

Seventeen years ago, Kamal Meattle discovered he had become allergic to the pollutants in the air in his home in Dehli, India. After some research, he found three plants that can provide a human with all the fresh air they need to be healthy:

The Areca Palm (or Chrysalidocarpus lutescens) is does great air cleansing work during the day. About 4 shoulder height plants per person should do the trick.
The Mother-in-law’s Tongue (or Sansevieria trifasciata) takes over by converting CO2 to O2 at night. You want about 6 to 8 of these waist high plants per person.
The Money Plant (or Epipremnum aureum) does the job of filtering out removing Formaldehyde and other VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds).

Kamal has been testing his theory for the last 15 years at the Paharpur Business Centre in India by filling it with over 1,200 plants for 300 building occupants. And according to the Indian Government, it works! They have rated the building the healthiest building in Delhi, and studies have shown your body actually works better after 10 hours in the building.

See the video here.

Via GreenUpgrader.

Love it! maybe this will help cut down on the weird smell from Dane's room.

posted by lesleyn on May 6th 2009 at 3:00pm
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I do want to add indoor plants, since we have none at the moment. But 8 large plants seems like a lot. Is it really per person? Does space play a factor in the quantity?

posted by KateNonymous on May 6th 2009 at 4:47pm
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o2foryou.org has research from nasa about specific houseplants, not necessarily needing all eight plants.

posted by gardenrachel on May 7th 2009 at 10:00am
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uhm, thats too many plants to fit in a lot of people's apartments...

posted by vazius13 on May 7th 2009 at 2:55pm
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I have some serious doubts about whether you could actually put yourself in a bottle with these plants and they'd provide all your o2. People tried it. It was called Biosphere. It didn't work.

But that's not to discourage anyone from adding plants to their home. One of the things B. C. Wolverton recommends in How to Grow Fresh Air is having a personal breathing zone - near a desk, bedroom or favorite chair where you spend a lot of time. Instead of filling your whole house with plants, just plant what you can and put them close to you.

posted by whytephoenix on May 7th 2009 at 5:12pm
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Those sound like very big plants... a lot for an apartment. And mine doesn't get a ton of light. Any idea what each plant usually costs?

http://www.margincomments.blogspot.com

posted by VirginiaWestfield on May 9th 2009 at 10:40am
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A NASA scientist began studying this in the 1970's and later published a book in the late 90's: How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants that Purify Your Home or Office by BC Wolverton.

posted by pedalpowered on May 11th 2009 at 11:09am
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This is extremely cool. That said, given that I have about 250 square 'living; feet (leaving out closets) in my apartment and there are two of us, that's about 25 plants. Large ones. I'm thinking there is some square footage assumption we are missing here? Or he likes a REALLY tropical environment.

posted by alleynyc on May 12th 2009 at 3:02pm
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