I would like to know the difference between antibiotics and pesticides. I guess the term pesticide is applicable only to plants. Isn't it? in addition pesticides are applied on surface of the plants or seeds or applied in rhizosphere. Whereas, antibiotics are given orally or intravenously to human beings and animals. Am I right? Please answer.
Antibiotics are the active biomolecules obtained from different microorganism (Bacteria ,Fungi,Actinomycetes ) Few antibiotics derived from plant origin also .Antibiotics kill the pathogens ,Disease causing harmfull microorganisms by interfering with their molecular process like transcription translation etc or also by inhibiting the process which are very essential for the survival of pathogen like cell wall synthesis etc .Antibiotics are further categorized in to narrow range and broad spectrum antibiotics .Antibiotics are given orally as well as injected intravenous.
Pesticides are the chemical formulation of complex organic molecule which in turn kill the insects .Majority of the used pesticides are of chemical origin only .Recently a concept of bio-pesticides have been arrived where in Bacillus thuriangenesis and few Viruses (Baculo viruses ) are used to control pests .Pesticides interfer the metabolism of insects or their growth and disturbing their physiological activity by active organic molecules which are very lethal to normal cells .As far i know the pesticide are usually applied on the surface of the plant leaf .
As for me, antibiotic is a substance that inhibits the growth of another organism while pesticide is a chemical that kills pest(s).
Antibiotics are agents that either kill or inhibit the growth of a microorganism.The term antibiotic was first used in 1942 to describe any substance produced by a microorganism that is antagonistic to the growth of other microorganisms. With advances in medicinal chemistry, most modern antibiotics are semisynthetic modifications of various natural compounds. Antibiotics are used in medicine and veterinary. Generally they are not used in plant protection (for example in Italy it is not possible to use antibiotics against plant pathogens).
Pesticides are plant protection products , which protect plants from weeds, insects and plant pathogens, including bacteria and other microorganisms. In general, a pesticide is a chemical or biological agent that kills, or otherwise discourages pests.
Antibiotics kill bacteria and some fungi, they could be sintethic or natural organisms (not confuse with disinfectants).
Pesticides are also sinthetic molecules that kill pests (weeds, fungus, insects, nematodes, mice, etc).
Dear Senthilarasu Gunasekaran,
Antibiotics are microbial product use to suppress/kill the other microbes hosted within human as well as the plant body.
Pesticide are synthetic/chemical compounds generally used to control the plants specific pests.
Bactericide specifically used as a killing agent for the Bacteria only.
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