Paraquat is not a tropical fruit in China.  It is one of the most widely used herbicides (weed killer) used worldwide.  It is popular because it quickly kills plant tissue on contact and is very inexpensive.  Its famous for a number of reasons, it’s banned from use in the Europe since 2004 but remains used in USA and other parts of the world. 

Sarojeni V. Rengam, at Pesticide Action Network, has called it the most toxic herbicide marketed globally since WWII. 

Guangdong, The Canton Province, is China’s richest province and the most populated, with 79 million people.  Shnehnz is the economic capital with a heavy consumption of vegitables in traditional cuisine.

According to the manufacturer, Syngenta, Paraquat is on the rise. ”In Guandong region, one million hectares of high quality vegetables are grown, often with up to eight crops harvested in each field every year.  Obviously, this can only be achieved with a rapid turnaround between crops.  Paraquat is used on over 40% of the vegetable area and sales continue to grow rapidly.”  (1)

It’s use in the USA is restricted to authorized applicators.  China is importing and producing it in higher concentrations to save on costs. 

One of the scariest areas of neuro and genetic research is that paraquat and similar toxic herbicides seem to correlate to Parkison disease, for increased exposure to living areas and eating produce with residue herbicide (2)  This was true for human studies alson on workers exposed to paraquat and other herbicides and pesticides, researchers found a statistically significant correlation between exposure to such substances and Parkinson’s Disease. Am J Ind Med, 1990, 17:3, 349-55

Another reason to urge for more control and oversight in agriculture as well as our reliance on chemicals.

I found some places to buy Paraquat in Shenzen.  http://www.tradekey.com/product_view/id/576161.htm

http://www.made-in-china.com/products-search/hot-china-products/Paraquat.html 

(1) Paraquat on the rise in Guandong , http://www.paraquat.com/Default.aspx?tabid=2915 

(2) http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/about-parkinsons/what-is-parkinsons/causes/underlying-causes.aspx