Purifying Air with Plants

Placing plants at various places inside your house, and trees and plants around your house, will significantly reduce particulate matter and other forms of pollution. There is a lot of scientific research to this effect and I will link to it eventually. Our lungs catch the PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 particles in the air when we breathe. In the case of plants, leaves do the job of breathing, and thus of filtering out PM particles from the air.

Recommended Indoor Plants in Delhi

Pretty much any plant that survives indoors will improve air quality in your house. The following plants tend to survive better indoors, and also have special air purification properties compared to other plants.

• Bedrooms – sansevieria trifasciata generates oxygen from carbon dioxide during the night¹.
• Money Plant (epipremnum aureum) and Areca Palm (dypsis lutescens) reduce formaldehyde, xylene and toluene. These volatile organic compounds lead to foul smell in the air². Place these plants around your house to reduce smells.

Caring for your Indoor Plants

If you’ve never maintained plants, please read up the basics of gardening before you buy some. Plants are living beings that need water and sunlight (but not too much). You will need to move these plants around the house, and possibly outside. You will also need to regularly wipe the leaves of the plants, to remove the dust and PM particles that they’ve filtered out.

Are Plants Enough?

As on November 5, 2016, PM levels in Gurgaon were 450 (PM2.5) and 700 (PM₁₀). These levels are extremely high. I have found no proper scientific studies on prolonged exposure to levels so high. If you can afford to, please invest in air purifiers. Those are guaranteed to clean up your indoor air (provided you choose wisely). You should also keep plants, but they cannot be your primary means of defence against such catastrophically high levels of pollution.