Plants Herbs Pesticides

Herbs are easy plants to grow, beautiful to look at and, in many cases, free from pest and disease problems. Growing them yourself means that you can have fresh supplies available when you need them, and using organic methods means you can be sure they have not been treated with pesticides. 

The term pesticide includes chemicals used to eradicate rodents (rodenticides), fungi (fungicides), weeds (herbicides) and insects (insecticides). These agrochemicals may be used directly on the medicinal plant crop itself, they may be used on crops growing adjacent to the herbs or they may occur as general environmental pollutants in soil, air or water. The presence of insecticide residues is of particular concern because those of the organochlorine type (DDT etc.) have been shown to cause cancers in animals and those of the organophosphate and carbamate types are potent cholinesterase inhibitors. 

---