How air purifying plants  help improve air quality?

Some Green plants act as   Air purifying catalyst by minimizing or removing the air contamination items from the air, especially when placed in the housing zones which are prone to air contamination or pollutants. Many people prefer to use such indoor plants to keep their house air purified and clean. Apart from placing the plants, the way the plants and its structures are exposed to air and its positioning will make a difference too.

A detailed review of the scientific work in this field up to 2014, carried out for the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, showed that the effects of urban vegetation on local air quality is complex. They suggested the following  design recommendations:  a) Dilution of emissions with clean air is crucial. The vegetation should preferably be low and/or close to surfaces. b) Proximity to the pollution source increases concentrations of air pollutants and deposition: vegetation should be close to the source. c) Air passing above, and not through, vegetation is not filtered: barriers should be high enough and porous enough to let the air through, but solid enough to allow the air to pass close to the surface. d) Deposition of coarse particles is more efficient at high wind speeds, while the opposite is true for ultrafine particles, and vegetation density often changes due to strong winds. To improve deposition, the vegetation should be hairy and have a large leaf area index, but still be possible to penetrate. As for those city canyons, a 2012 study2 showed that the planting of vegetation in street canyons can reduce street-level concentrations by as much as 40% for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and 60% for particulate matter (PM), and concluded that judicious use of vegetation can create an efficient urban pollutant filter, yielding rapid and sustained improvements in street-level air quality in dense urban areas.

Air purifying (Formaldehyde, Trichloroethylene, Benzene) Indoor plants as per NASA study recommendation:

• Gerbera daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
• English ivy (Hedera heix)
• Marginata (Dracaena marginata)
• Peace lily (Spathiphyllum  also called Mauna Loa)
• Mother-in-law’s tongue (Sansevieria laurentii),
• Warneckei (Dracaena deremensis – also called “Warneckei” )
• Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea seifritzii)
• Mass cane (Dracaena massangeana)
• Janet Craig (Dracaena deremensis  also called “Janet Craig”)
• Pot mum (Chrysanthemum morifolium)
• Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema – also called “Silver Queen”)
• Banana (Musa oriana)
• Heart leaf philodendron (Philodendron oxycardium)
• Elephant ear philodendron (Philodendron domesticum)
• Green spider plant (Chlorophytum elatum), Golden pothos (Scindapsus aureus)
• Lacy tree philodendron (Philodendron selloum)
• Aloe vera
• Ficus