Chromatographic mass-spectrometric study of volatile emissions of ether-bearing plants for chemical safety assessment of their use in enclosed spaces

Issues of improving the environment are now among the most important for the population of large administrative and industrial cities. Improving the quality of the environment and creating comfortable living conditions for people using environmentally friendly methods is the one of most up-to-date directions in environmental health. Improving the quality of the internal environment of the premises involves the use of various modern technical life support systems to regulate parameters of the environment. However, existing methods of cleaning and air conditioning of public and industrial premises not only fail to provide the required quality of cleaning, but also can often lead to the appearance of toxic substances, promote deionization of air and deterioration of its quality according to by biological indices. Both to clean and improve the air and give it the properties that are favorable for the life-activity of a person, phytodesign methods are used. The most popular in the gardening of interiors are tropical, subtropical and aromatic plants. Their application is due to their release in the process of vital activity in the environment of biologically active substances — phytoncides, which can improve the air composition, reduce the number of bacteria, fungi, viruses and have a therapeutic effect. Chromatographic-mass-spectrometric studies of the composition of volatile organic components of ether-bearing plants of phytocomposites, when used for artificial illumination of phytolamps with narrow spectral red and blue light, have shown that 26 organic compounds have been identified in the composition of volatile discharges of phytomodule plants grown under natural illumination. The greatest contribution to the component composition of the mixture was made by saturated hydrocarbons (36%). The contribution of oxygen-containing compounds, including phenols, was 13%, aldehydes and cyclic non-aromatic hydrocarbons — 12 and 11% respectively. Despite the usefulness of additional artificial lighting for plants, an increase in the amount of substances has been established with the formation of new compounds and an increase in the total content of the identified substances. There was an increase in the content of toxic phenol (by 14 times), benzaldehyde (by 10 times) and acetophenone (by 7 times). The most hygienic significance was the group of terpenic hydrocarbons, which belongs to the group of readily convertible substances, as well as groups of oxygen-containing compounds (aldehydes, ketones, phenols, ethers), which belong to the naturally occurring entities of the toxic and dangerous groups of chemicals. More than 50% of the identified compounds did not have hygienic standards, it is not possible to assess their danger or safety for human health. The use of ether-bearing plants in closed rooms requires the chemical-analytical control of the composition of volatile emissions and the establishment of optimal conditions (saturation of plants in the room, room volume, the presence of conditioning or ozonizing units, temperature regime, humidity, etc.) in order to provide the chemical safety for human health.