Assessing the Indoor Pollutants Effect on Ornamental Plants Leaves by FT-IR Spectroscopy

Air pollution has become a mass phenomenon, a major and global problem of modern society, affecting billions of people and environment. People are exposed to various levels of pollutants not just in the outdoor environment, but also in indoors. The quality of life and well-being of employees can be increased by incorporating ornamental plants in the work environment. Among the great variety of plants species able to remove/reduce indoor air pollutants Dracaena deremensis, Sansevieria trifasciata and Ficus elastica were hereby investigated. Their ability to remove chemical pollutants was evaluated in real-life conditions and the changes induced by the environmental stress on the structure and biochemical composition of the plants leaves were evidenced by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The most pronounced concentration decrease was noticed for the CO₂ (58.33% removed concentration), whereas the mean value of the removed concentration of other chemical pollutants was of ≈ 25%. The Fourier transform infrared spectra analysis revealed that, although the plants are subjected to the chemical pollutants action, they maintain the structure by adjusting their metabolism. A decrease in the overall protein contribution in the amide bands and an increase of the bands assigned to polysaccharide vibrations, illustrate the consequences of the pollution action. Moreover, the chlorophyll presence is evidenced in the IR spectra of all samples by the bands around 1040, 1445, 1620, and 1735 cm^{-1}. The results show that the Fourier transform infrared spectra are an important source of information for the rapid characterization of the chemical structure of the biological systems under environmental stress.