Journal of Global Ecology and Environment

Indoor air quality significantly affects human health and well-being, particularly in enclosed urban environments where ventilation is limited and pollutants may accumulate. Indoor plants have been reported to improve indoor air quality through pollutant absorption by leaf surfaces and root-associated microbial activity. This study investigated the influence of selected indoor plants, namely areca palm (Dypsis lutescens), spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum), and money plant (Epipremnum aureum), on indoor air quality in a controlled room environment. Unlike many previous studies that evaluated individual plant species, the present study comparatively assessed single-species and multi-species ornamental plant combinations under identical controlled indoor conditions using multiple indoor air quality parameters. The study included both single-species and multi-species combinations monitored over a three-day experimental period. Key air quality parameters, including particulate matter (PM_2.5 and PM₁₀), carbon dioxide (CO₂), formaldehyde (HCHO), total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), and the overall air quality index (AQI), were measured before human occupancy, after human occupancy, and following overnight plant exposure. The results suggest that combined plant treatments may provide greater improvements than single-species treatments. The study also highlights fundamental limitations associated with small-scale indoor environments, including a limited leaf-area-to-volume ratio and a short exposure duration. The results indicated that all treatments improved indoor air quality, whereas multi-species combinations demonstrated greater pollutant removal efficiency. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences among treatments for PM_2.5 and TVOCs (P < 0.05) and PM₁₀ (P < 0.001), with multi-species plant combinations generally showing greater reductions. The greatest reductions in PM_2.5 (34.9%), PM₁₀ (36.4%), and TVOCs (50.0%) were observed in multi-species plant treatments, indicating their superior performance compared with individual plant species. These findings suggest that strategically selected multi-species indoor ornamental plant combinations may serve as an environmentally sustainable, low-cost supplementary approach for improving indoor air quality in residential, educational, and office environments.