Top 30 Plants To Detox Your Home!
by TJ July 4, 2014 3 commentsTop 30 Plants To Detox Your Home!
By: Tommy “Tj” Sotomayor
There are many benefits to having plants in our home and office environments. Anecdotally, it both elevates my mood and calms me. Perhaps plant care may feel like a quotidian chore to some people, but the act of watering and trimming plants, if done at the end of a day, is very meditative. Additionally, evapotranspiration from leaves normally raises the humidity in a room by 5-10%, which is particularly good for when air is dry.
Depending on species, plants can act as effective botanical air purification systems. The higher the transpiration rates, the higher the convection currents, which ultimately has a pulling effect on airborne toxins. During the 1980s, NASA found that some species of plants can eliminate up to 87 percent of toxins in the air, including formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, trichloroethylene, carbon monoxide, and even dust. These volatile organic contaminants (VOCs) are off-gassed in homes from paint, varnishes, cleaning solutions, insulations, wood, furniture, carpeting and other products. NASA concluded that 15 to 18 mature air-filtering plants in a house with an area of about 160 square meters could maintain the level of emissions in accordance with our environmental standards. Since that time, multiple studies with varying methods have been conducted. From what I’ve seen from the literature, the following thirty species have been shown to be effective biological air filters:
– Bamboo Palm (Chamadorea elegans or C. erumpens)
– Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata)
– Dwarf date palm (Phoenix roebelini)
– English ivy (Hedera helix)
– Florist’s mum (Chrysanthemum morifolium)
– Gerbera daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
– Kimberly queen fern (Nephrolepis obliterrata)
– Rubber plant (Ficus elastic)
– Areca palm (Dypsis lutescens)
– Corn plant (Dracaena fragrans)
– Janet Craig (Dracaena deremensisI)
– Peace lily (Spathiphyllum varieties
– Schefflera (Brassaia actinophylla)
– Weeping fig (Ficus benjamina)
– Dendrobium orchid (Dendrobium sp.)
– Dumbcane (Dieffenbachia sp.)
– Long leaf fig (Ficus binnendijkii)
– King of Hearts (Homalomena wallisii)
– Lady Palm (Rhapis excelsa)
– Lily turk (Liriope muscari)
– Spider Plant (Clopophytium comosum)
– Philodendron (Philodendron sp.)
– Dragon tree (Dracena marginata)
– Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema modestum)
– Flamingo lily (Anthurium andreanum)
– Areca palm (Dypsis lutescens)
– Azalea (Azalea sp.)
– Pothos (Epipremnum aureum)
– Snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata)
– Cast iron plant (Aspidistra sp.)
Click here to view how to build a vertical garden with many of the plants above.
3 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationThank you, Tommy. It’s riveting when an Afro-Panamanian-American guy actually puts up health articles such as this one. 🙂
Thanks for this information. I’ve been looking for this over the past few months.
Pretty dang interesting. Thanks for the info.
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