(1) Plant leaves can absorb certain organic chemicals and destroy these chemicals by a process called “metabolic breakdown.” This was proven by a group of German scientists who labeled formaldehyde with a radioactive carbon 14 tag and followed its absorption and metabolic destruction inside a spider plant (Chlorophytumn comosum). The formaldehyde was metabolized and converted into tissue products such as organic acids, sugars and amino acids as demonstrated by the radioactive carbon 14 label. This information was published in the Plant Physiology Journal in 1994. [Martina Giese, Ulrike Bauer-Doranth, C. Langebartels, and Henrich Sanderman, Jr. “Detoxification of formaldehyde by the spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum). Plant Physiology, 1994, 104: 1301-1309.

(2) When plants transpire water vapor from their leaves, they pull air down around their roots. This supplies their root microbes with oxygen. The root microbes also use other substances in the room air, such as toxic chemicals, as a source of food and energy. Microbes, such as bacteria, can rapidly adapt to a chemical contaminant by producing new colonies that are resistant to the chemical. As a result, they become more effective the longer they are exposed to the chemical. It is also important to remember that the efficiency of plants or a filtering device decreases as the concentration of chemicals in the air decreases. For example, the removal rate of a chemical is much higher at 7 parts per million (ppm) exposure than at 2 ppm.