On 9/12/2010 3:07 AM, randy oliver wrote:
>>> Some plant toxins are actually desirable since they help calibrate the
>> body's immune response.
Some we call vitamins.
>>> I would like to know if, unlike synthetic pesticides, plants' natural
>> pesticides are carcinogenic in humans.

I understand that at least some of the alkoloids are, or at least 
suspected of being carcinogenic.  Most of the knowledge of plant poisons 
comes from livestock, where even valuable grazing plants can under some 
circumstances be deadly.
> The article that you cited doesn't say anything about toxicity of naturally
> occurring pesticides, which is what this discussion is about.  I do not care
> to add additional toxins to my, or my bee's diet, either.  The question of
> this discussion is whether the addition of small quantities of
> xenochemicals, relative to the vast quantities of natural pesticides, are
> significant.

Like most things-it depends.  Many of these natural pesticides are 
'diluted' as the plant grows.  And we are able to detoxify them if the 
dose is not all that large.  Think cyanide.  Deadly, but common in 
nature. As a chemist mate of mine is wont to say- you eat enough in a 
day to kill you, if taken as one dose.   The liver even manages heaps of 
that poison beloved by humans, ethanol.

The problem/benefit with the artificial pesticides has always been 
either their persistence/bioaccumulation and or their breakdown 
products.  Can nature break them down?  "If nature makes it, nature eats 
it".  By definition nature didn't make the artificials .

And their effectiveness, which leads to rapid resisence.

The question really needs to be answered on a per case basis.

Geoff Manning

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