Advanced Evaluation of Indoor Air Purification by Plants: Modeling the Impact of Chlorophytum Comosum and Aglaonema Silver in Benzene; [رولیس امنولگآ و موسوموک موتیفورلک ریثأت یزاس لدم :ناهایگ طسوت یلخاد یاوه هیفصت هتفرشیپ یبایزرانزنب شهاک رد]



Farahani FB ; Alimohammadi M ; Rahimi J ; Khoramipour S ; Dehghanifard E
Source: Iranian Journal of Health and Environment Published:2025

Abstract

Background and Objective: People spend over 90% of their time indoors, where air pollutant concentrations—including volatile organic compounds (VOCs)—are significantly higher than outdoors. Among these VOCs, benzene is particularly critical due to its carcinogenic properties. Phytoremediation offers a sustainable solution for removing such pollutants from indoor environments. This study evaluates the benzene-reduction efficiency of two ornamental plant species, Aglaonema ‘Silver’ and Chlorophytum comosum, under controlled temperature and humidity conditions. Materials and Methods: The plants were exposed to two temperature levels (18°C and 24°C) and two relative humidity conditions (35% and 50%). Benzene was introduced into sealed chambers at concentrations of 1, 0.5, 0.25, and 0.125 µL/mL. After 12 hours of exposure, benzene reduction was quantified using gas chromatography. Results: At 20°C and 35% RH, Aglaonema 'Silver' removed 96% of benzene, outperforming Chlorophytum comosum (38%). Removal efficiency depended on species, environmental conditions, and initial concentration. Predictive models (Eq. 2–3) correlated strongly with experimental data (R2 > 0.9). Conclusion: Aglaonema 'Silver' demonstrated superior benzene removal compared to Chlorophytum comosum under lower temperature and humidity conditions. Our findings highlight that selecting plant species adapted to specific environmental parameters can significantly improve phytoremediation effectiveness. Furthermore, the proposed model indicates that elevated temperature and humidity levels may enhance benzene removal efficiency by indoor plants. Copyright © 2025 Iranian Association of Environmental Health, and Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Published by Tehran University of Medical Sciences. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Noncommercial uses of the work are permitted, provided the original work is properly cited.