Results of research commissioned by Growers’ Union Air So Pure have confirmed the air-purifying abilities of plants.
The research project commissioned by Air So Pure was undertaken by Fytagoras, a subsidiary of independent research organisation TNO that specialises in plants. The plants that performed best in the tests were nephrolepsis and hedera – which both received a nine on the air-purification scale used in the research. The areca palm scored eight, while spathiphyllum and phlebodium scored seven.
Bert van Dujin, chief scientific officer at Fytagoras and professor in plant physiology, said: “To find out to what extent pot plants purify the air, we developed a general test for the plants whereby they all received a grade between one and 10.”
Though the research, in general, concluded that plants purify the air, researchers noted that there is a great disparity between the hardest-working plants and those that performed less well in the tests, with some doing almost nothing at all to clean the air.
