On Natural Air Filters, NASA Approved Houseplants for Improving Indoor Air Quality.
According to NASA there are plenty of plants that soak up harmful particles in the air and release fresh oxygen – all while adding a decorative touch.
Where does it all come from?
- Glues and Adhesives
- Carpets (especially new carpets)
- Chemicals in household cleaners
- Foam insulation materials
- Paint
- Pressed-wood products
If plants are good enough for the pioneers of space travel than they must be doing something right. The plants listed below are 10 of the most effective air filters Mother Nature has to offer.
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Golden Pothos NASA considered this plant one of the most effective choices for eliminating formaldehyde. People that have struggled to keep plants alive can rejoice – this one is incredibly hard to kill. It doubles as an effective eliminator of carbon monoxide as well. The vines grow fairly quickly and look great suspended from elevated areas. |
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English Ivy The English Ivy is ideal for pots because its invasive nature allows it to spread easily. Research found it to be particularly useful in eliminating airborne fecal-matter particles. The plant is also great for a family with smokers in it. Its ability to soak up carcinogens from second-hand smoke helps to purify small areas. It’s also versatile when it comes to growing conditions and doesn’t require much maintenance. |
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Boston Fern (Nephrolepis Exalta Bostoniensis) This lush plant functions really well as a natural air humidifier. While it’s busy adding humidity to the environment it also does a great job eliminating formaldehyde. Its large feathered ferns span as large as 5 feet and allow just a single plant to have a noticeable impact. |
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| Dracaena (Dracaena Deremensis) The long striped leaves of this plant can easily thrive indoors with only small amounts of sunlight and moderate watering. It’s an excellent way to eliminate trichloroethylene that comes from solvents and varnishes. A single plant can grow over ten feet tall, but pruning will keep it short if you prefer. |
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| Bamboo Palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii) The Bamboo Palm can easily fit into smaller areas with indirect lighting. NASA found it to be one of the best air filters for benzene and trichloroethylene, and a great humidifier. This palm is a bit smaller than others and easy to grow in shady areas. It releases a good deal of moisture into the air and is considerably resistant to insect infestation. |
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| Dragon Tree (Dracaena Marginata) This plant is a widely popular option for office spaces and homes for its attractive look and effective purifying power. It pulls xylene – a chemical released from car exhaust, paints, and cigarettes – from the air with little need for maintenance. It can also be potted together and trained to grow into a braid for visual appeal and added purification. |
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| Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum) The Peace Lily is one of the most visually appealing plants on the list with its unique white flowers. It boasts one of the highest transpiration rates on the list as well. Use it to remove trichloroethylene, benzene, acetone, and alcohols from the air. Just be cautious of the plants high toxicity and keep it out of reach of children and pets. |
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| Lady Palm (Rhapis Excelsa) The Lady Palm requires a lot of watering during the spring and summer but makes up for it with its heavy resistance to insects. The lush leaves of this palm grow thick and with rich color without much effort. Its said to be a versatile and effective filter for multiple indoor pollutants. |
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| Spider Plant (Chlorophytum Comosum) The Spider Plant requires natural light but shouldn’t be exposed directly to the sun. It thrives in moist environments with bi-weekly watering and grows at impressive speeds. Owners prefer to place these plants near the fireplace and kitchen where carbon monoxide may build. |
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| Snake Plant (Sansevieria Trifasciata) The Snake Plant is unique in that it sucks in carbon dioxide and releases oxygen during the night. Many people chose to keep it in their bedroom or carpeted living room. It’s simple to take care of and prevents the formaldehyde that leaks from your carpet and wood furniture from sticking around the air. |
Green oxygen producing plants are abundant in nature, especially in forests, jungles and coastal regions by the ocean (seaweeds, algae and marine phytoplankton make up the overwhelming majority of the worlds oxygen producing plants). If you've ever spent time in or near these settings, you'll know how refreshing and revitalizing they are! Oxygen and the air it is contained in, could be considered the most crucial nutrient to the human body because life can only last mere minutes without it.Every cell in the body uses oxygen for fuel (as well as glucose). Brain function quickly drops when it is not supplied with adequate oxygen. If it falls too low to quickly, a stroke can occur. Cancers and many pathogenic diseases are destroyed by oxygen, which is why hyperbaric oxygen chambers are used as such powerful life saving tools. These chambers can also reverse all the side effects of a stroke if a person who has just suffered from one is placed into one within an hour or so.The ratio of oxygen to other molecules in the Earth's atmosphere has been dropping over several decades. The majority of this problem is due to air pollution increasing and less to the fact that the forests and jungles of the world are being reduced by clear cutting (which should still be stopped). Areas of higher pollution, such as cities, have a lower percentage of oxygen in the air. I hope that these oxygen facts help illustrate the importance of bringing both oxygen producing plants as well as air cleaning plants into your home for life-span development.Dr. B.C. Wolverton, a former NASA research scientist, helped the agency look into how air purifying plants could be used onboard space missions to benefit the artificial environments onboard their spacecraft.This NASA Clean Air Study found that oxygen producing plants can be used to both produce oxygen as well as remove common harmful chemicals from the air and break them down into harmless organic byproducts into the soil, which the plants then use as food! These chemicals that are harmful to human health are off-gassed from common household items and products. Some of these items and the chemicals they release are found in synthetic carpets (releases formaldehyde), petroleum products (release benzene), toys, chemical cleaners, paint, furniture with synthetic components and everything else that is synthetic!All air cleaning plants will of course always produce oxygen, but here are some of the top ones that happen to have a high conversion rate of carbon dioxide (the waste product humans and animals exhale and that plants inhale) to oxygen. The major benefit of adding oxygen producing plants to your living and work space is an increase of productivity due to the maintenance of healthy oxygen levels in the blood.Sprouts!: If you grow your own sprouts for food (especially sweet pea sprouts, buckwheat sprouts and sunflower sprouts) you will have a fantastic mini greenhouse effect in your living space. You also get supplemental oxygen orally by eating raw, living greens!Snake Plant: a.k.a. Mother-In-Law’s Tongue: Of all the different oxygen producing plants, this one is unique since it converts a lot of CO2 (carbon dioxide) to O2 (oxygen) at night, making it ideal to have several in your bedroom. 6-8 waist high plants are needed per person to survive if there is no air flow (meaning you could live in a completely air sealed room if you had these plants and the Areca Palms present). The snake plant also removes formaldehyde from the air.Areca Palm: This plant removes xylene and toluene from the air, but also happens to convert a lot of CO2 (carbon dioxide) to O2 (oxygen) during the daytime. Having four (shoulder high plants) of these per person in your household provides enough oxygen to survive on during daylight hours! They need to have dust and grime wiped off of their leaves once a week, or as often as daily if you live in a city with very bad air quality such as Delhi.Madagascar Dragon Tree: a.k.a. Red Edged Dracaena: As a popular house plant that needs little attention, it best removes benzene, formaldehyde, xylene and toluene from the air. It cannot tolerate direct sunlight yet it does well in fairly well indirectly lit areas. It is more susceptible to becoming damaged from over watering than infrequent watering.Warneck Dracaena: One of the most popular clean air plants, this one removes benzene, trichloroethylene, xylene and toluene from the air.Peace Lily: This species (of which there are a variety of sub-species) thrives best in the shade and with only roughly one watering per week (must be chlorine free water) but never let the soil completely dry out. This easy to take care of house plant removes benzene, formaldehyde, acetone, amonia and trichloroethylene from the air. It also periodically flowers.
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