Rethinking the utility of plants

I went to a nursery recently. I asked the guy, how's his business going? I learned that plants are mostly used for fancy decorations; I wonder why that came to be the most popular utility of plants, and why it isn't properly marketed (yet) as an air purification agent. Yes! Plants purify the air around us apart from giving us what we breathe.

Several shops, online and offline, sell plants and people seem to buy them primarily for decoration/fancy purposes. That's the market positioning of plants for the most part. Hence, plants are not the obvious choice for every home.

Not many of us buy indoor plants to breathe fresh indoor air or detoxify indoors. We need to think of plants as a detoxification agent. This is the need of the hour.

Before we can use plants as a health enhancer, there must be a level of education we all must receive about the different varieties of indoor plants and their health benefits. The good news is that educating people about it is very simple. Just help them realise that plants (as everyone knows) are a source of life and it is not a luxury that only houses with gardens/lawns can afford.

NASA has approved houseplants for improving indoor air quality. Some of the plants recommended by NASA are Aloe Vera, Peace Lily, Spider Plant, English Ivy, and Boston Fern. You can get most of these houseplants from your nearby nursery. For those of us with access to the Internet, we can easily find out about all the benefits of indoor houseplants and how it has actually helped cure some major health problems for people around the globe. So yes, first let's educate oneself, and then bring indoor plants home to set an example for others to follow and emulate.

The concrete jungles (cities/towns) don't need a lawn to think about effectively utilising plants; they just need some small pots (with indoor houseplants in it) to bring renewed energy with purified indoor air. And not to forget, these indoor plants look great at home.

Also, if you know nurseries in your city and can influence them, help them launch plants (as a product) in the billion dollar air purification systems market. Its Natural Plants VS Electric Air Purifiers.

We have a whole lot of consumer perception to tackle how plants can also be seen as an air purification agent. Plants have a shot at being the Patanjali of the air purifier market.

I just bought some plants and hope to have nice indoor air detoxification going forward. You too should try it.

By: Girish Mahadevan