Small-scale botanical in enhancing indoor air quality: A bibliometric analysis (2011-2020) and short review

Abstract

Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) has developed a positive relationship with human health risks. Recently, research findings reported that the pollution level of indoor air could be 2 – 5 times higher than the outdoor air. In some studies, the poor IAQ could reach up to 100 times or more in a natural/ mechanical ventilated building. IAQ depends heavily on the ambient air quality and pollutants/ contaminants produced by household activities. Poor IAQ could lead to various health issues, i.e., asthma, lung cancer, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, etc. One of the possible solutions to overcome the poor IAQ problem is the utilisation of indoor botanical to improve the IAQ. The phytoremediation of botanical is an affordable and environmentally friendly approach to purify the polluted indoor air. Although there is no established recommendation for determining the best indoor botanical in improving the IAQ, many studies have revealed the ability of specific indoor botanicals to remove pollutants/ contaminants. This paper presents the bibliometric analysis and short review based on 79 publications issued in 2011 – 2021. Those articles were extracted from the Web of Science database. Based on the analysis, the number of publications has increased significantly starting from the year 2017. Indoor Air was identified as one of the top productive journals for this research topic.