Contamination of plants and seeds with microorganisms is one of the main problems
in the production and distribution of various agricultural products, as well as raw herbal
material for the preparation of herbal remedies. The problem leads to contamination of herbal
drugs with pathogenic bacteria and saprophytic or pathogenic fungi and mycotoxins from
fungi. Microbial contamination significantly affects the overall quality of herbal remedies and
a risk assessment of the microbial load of medicinal plants has therefore become an important
subject in the establishment of modern Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)
schemes (Kneifel et al., 2002). In addition, the fight against microbial contamination usually
involves synthetic pesticides, which entails questions about the safety of products and
contamination of the environment.