![\"snake](\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/snake-plant-care-overview-1902772-04-76c211bb8d1b461e8af30a68b6169535-1024x773.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nIn an interview with Bernama, chemist, Dr. Fatimah Salim expressed concern that growing the plant which\u00a0scientifically known as\u00a0Sansevieria Trifasciata indoor could lead to\u00a0microorganism multiplication that could\u00a0affect the health of certain groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She explained that\u00a0soil is the most conducive place for microorganisms to thrive due to its high organic, inorganic, and mineral content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSoil contains different types of microorganism such as bacteria, algae, fungus, protozoa, actinomycetes and ciliata.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA single gramme of soil may contain 10 billions of microorganism cells, especially around the plant roots (rhizosphere).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s\u00a0why the soil should not be kept indoor as\u00a0it may be harmful especially to\u00a0those\u00a0with a suppressed\u00a0immune system because they can be\u00a0easily affected by the presence of this microorganism,\u201d said the research fellow at the Atta-ur-Rahman Institute for Natural Product Discovery, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Puncak Alam campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Fatimah said for those who wish to grow plants indoors,\u00a0there\u00a0are alternatives\u00a0to using soil, which include\u00a0lightweight expanded clay aggregate (Leca),\u00a0coconut coir, padi husks,\u00a0a form of\u00a0volcanic glass known as\u00a0perlite\u00a0and the use of hydroponics method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe can also just use water, but it must be changed regularly to prevent mosquitoes from breeding and reduce the survival ability of the microorganism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMicroorganism activities can be traced by the presence of foul odouror moss coating on the submerged part of the plants,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The National Poison Centre on June 7, through its official Facebook page advised the public, especially those with small children, to be cautious of the plant as it contains an active substance known as Saponin, which can cause vomitting, diarrhea and rashes if consumed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Bernama check at a nursery in Jalan Kuala Kangsar here found that there was a high demand for the plants after it went viral following claims that it could be a source of natural air purifier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NCS Craft Garden Lanskap owner Meizi Chong said this required her to get more supplies of the plants from Cameron Highland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chong, 31, said she has been selling the plant since the nursery started operation three years ago and due to the high demand, she could sell up to 10 pots of snake plant per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGrowing the plant, which is sold at RM8 to RM40 depending on the size, is easy as you just need to water it for at least twice a week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" IPOH, June 14\u00a0— It has been widely claimed that the viral snake plants are\u00a0good for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2749,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-social"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/snake-plant-care-overview-1902772-04-76c211bb8d1b461e8af30a68b6169535.jpg",2048,1545,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/snake-plant-care-overview-1902772-04-76c211bb8d1b461e8af30a68b6169535-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/snake-plant-care-overview-1902772-04-76c211bb8d1b461e8af30a68b6169535-300x226.jpg",300,226,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/snake-plant-care-overview-1902772-04-76c211bb8d1b461e8af30a68b6169535-768x579.jpg",640,483,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/snake-plant-care-overview-1902772-04-76c211bb8d1b461e8af30a68b6169535-1024x773.jpg",640,483,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/snake-plant-care-overview-1902772-04-76c211bb8d1b461e8af30a68b6169535-1536x1159.jpg",1536,1159,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/snake-plant-care-overview-1902772-04-76c211bb8d1b461e8af30a68b6169535.jpg",2048,1545,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/snake-plant-care-overview-1902772-04-76c211bb8d1b461e8af30a68b6169535.jpg",1120,845,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/snake-plant-care-overview-1902772-04-76c211bb8d1b461e8af30a68b6169535.jpg",1024,773,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/snake-plant-care-overview-1902772-04-76c211bb8d1b461e8af30a68b6169535.jpg",630,475,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Education<\/a> Social<\/a>","tag_info":"Social","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4286"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4289,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4286\/revisions\/4289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}