The literature surrounding air pollution is growing and it is dismal. Now, researchers are hoping they can save our lungs with genetically-modified houseplants.
Remember the cowplant from the Sims franchise that would straight up devour your neighbours? If you’ve ever wished you could own one, you’ll be happy to learn that we’re one step closer to that possibility, thanks to researchers at the University of Washington (UW).
A recent paper published in the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology describes how scientists put the DNA of a rabbit into a Devil’s Ivy—a normal, common, and otherwise tame houseplant.
The researchers at UW inserted the mammalian genes for cytochrome P450 in the Devil’s Ivy plant. In mammals, these genes help the individual metabolize toxins. Humans do produce these proteins, but only in our livers, where we break down the poisons we ingest, as opposed to the ones we inhale. The idea behind this genetically-altered plant is to put those metabolic processes in the path of the toxins before they reach the individual, a concept known as a “green liver.”
By inserting these genes, the Devil’s Ivy plants were able to filter toxins, such as chloroform, from the air around it.
As fun and wild as #lablyfe may seem, the scientists’ reasoning behind doing this is pretty bleak. According to researchers, pollution and its effect on human health are becoming a concerning problem, especially for those living in increasingly urbanizing cities, such as Ottawa. Household air is usually more polluted than the air in both schools and offices, they say, and vulnerable populations, such as children, are most susceptible to the effects of polluted air.
According to the report, household air in industrialized countries is usually full of volatile organic compounds (VOC). VOCs are organic compounds that have low boiling points, and thus become gaseous at room temperature, hence the term “volatile.” Common household VOCs include chloroform, which is produced from showering, benzene from smoke, and formaldehyde from cooking.
To test the efficacy of the plant’s filter abilities, researchers put samples of Devil’s Ivy 2.0 into glass tubes and pumped the air full of formaldehyde and chloroform. They did the same with samples of wild Devil’s Ivy plants as well, as a control. With all other conditions the same, any significant discrepancy can likely be attributed to the change.
Over 11 days, the scientists observed the plant leaf cells with a fluorescence microscope to see how much of the toxins had been filtered. Regular, old, everyday pothos ivy did not significantly filter out any of the toxins—but the new and improved Epipremnum aureum, as the Romans say, removed all the chloroform in six days and three quarters of the benzene in eight.
What I like about this research paper is that it provides a solution, a torrent of hope in a rising sea of information about our apocalyptic near-future, instead of the alarmism and typical “we’re screwed” cynicism we often see with regards to pollution. Trees and plants filter pollution out of the air we breathe, and the plants we put in our homes are no exception.
Unfortunately, houseplants aren’t a 100 per cent effective method of filtering household air—yet. Bill Wolverton, a former NASA research scientist who conducted a famous experiment to test plants’ ability to detoxify air in 1989, told Time he estimates that you would need two large house plants for every 100 square feet of your home to see a decrease in indoor air contaminants, but at least now, they are that much closer. Until now, houseplants have been unable to filter small molecules such as chloroform or benzene, which have been linked to the development of cancer.
So for now, here’s something you can do to improve your air quality: get indoor plants. They cost less and are easier to maintain than most air filters. Specifically, get spider plants. Spider plants reproduce asexually and easily multiply. The authors of the study also note that plenty of research has been done on spider plants, and they have been shown to be one of a few household plants that can filter out formaldehyde and benzene.
If you already have a bunch of spider plants and want some diversity, try plant species with bigger and broader leaves. The higher the surface area of a leaf, the greater its ability to filter out toxins from the air you breathe.
