Is it true that Basil Herb naturally has Mercury?

Question

I have heard from different sources that Basil herb naturally contains mercury ("in trace amounts").
Ive heard both tulsi and sweet basil contain it. Has anyone heard this and further; does anyone avoid basil because of it?
Mercury is offically classified as one of the most destructive non-radioactive nuerotoxins on earth and is something I am activley trying to omit form my diet.
thanks

Answer 1

In order for any plant to contain mercury, it has to be present in the soil. Agricultural soils contain very insignificant amounts of mercury. The amounts (even in a supposedly high uptake plant like basil) are even more insignificant. And then, think of how much basil you eat, in terms of DRY matter. Compare that to the amount of rice or wheat you consume. There is no comparison. You and everyone else probably consume most of your mercury and *all other* heavy metals from a cereal grain, just because of the large amounts of grain eaten. If you are not a vegetarian, fish and meats are also sources of toxic heavy metals.

Answer 2

I've seen this too, but it's only a potential problem if you eat a lot of it & the mercury accumilates in your system over time. How many ppl continue to eat fish, which can have much higher levels of mercury?
I wouldn't stop eating basil myself, as I generally use only a bit @ a time & there are trace amounts of toxins in lots of foods. Being a vegetarian, I absorb fewer dietary toxins that omnivores so my body has a better chance of protecting itself than if I were under a constant deluge of chemicals, hormones etc.

Answer 3

No, as far as I now, it does not. I just checked this question on different search engines and nothing comes up other than flu vaccines and fish that contain mercury. You can read up on mercury poisoning here http://www.calpoison.org/public/mercury.html

Answer 4

With the ability to find materials at the PPT (that's trillion or 1:1,000,000,000,000) level, I'm sure you can prove that every plant contains some level of nearly every element.

I seriously wouldn't worry about it.

Answer 5

could be