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Trap sap

I read a book yesterday at my old univeristy which said that the liquid from unopenned pitchers is used medicinally by locals for everything from diarrhea to bed wetting. Do any of you have any anacdotes?

I must admit I'm cynical by nature, and I wonder if the drugs they put out to relax insects have been used, let us say, recreationally?

Tim
 
Really? That's weird. Never heard of it. but I have heard that you can drink the fluids inside of the pitchers for emergency water, if you are lost in the tropical rain forest and don't have any. (water)
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Maybe the locals have like, a superstitious witch doctor that just tell them that it cures stuff like that.
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Well since its essentially sterile and (maybe) antibiotic its probably better then some of the water you could find around there.

Andrew
 
I've drunk litres of the stuff and, trust me guys, it doesn't "do" anything. Some species (raff for example) has quite a strong herbal taste while others such as singalana are almost like straight water.

Some places I have seen it used by the locals as eye medicine, as Vagabond points out it is essentially sterile so that is a good use for it. Mostly the pitchers themselves are used rather than the liquid. The locals stuff them with rice and cook the rice in coals and the pitcher gives the rice a herbal flavour.

Ampullaria has looong, very strong stems and it is also commonly used to tie things.

Cheers, Troy.
 
Hi,

Tim, just guessing, but I don't expect that many drugs in the pitcher fluid. When insects have managed to find their way into it, they are doomed even without drugs. Only in the nectar drugs would be useful for catching insects. Well, I think I should look this up in literature, as I might be wrong.

Troy, how many Nepenthes species are you able to identify by their taste only? Maybe you should try to convince Charles adding a "pitcher-fluid-taste" section to his formal descriptions!
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Joachim
 
At Thomas Carrow film "The Plants That Bite Back" you can see how the locals at Borneo use the fluid to wash thier face , eyes drink it and use the pitchers to cook rice in them.
Arie
 
Ok so how many of you are or know some one that is allergic to the Nepenthese?

I know 2 people personally that break out in rashes if they so much as brush up aganst the plant. One of my friends cant even be in the greenhouse when they are flowering, the pollen makes him break out too!

Anybody else have to deal with this?

Peace
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Whats the fluid like in your mouth? Like egg whites?
 
I think it would be more like water because if you dump a pitcher upside down, liquid comes out, and it looks and feels like water, though on one of my neps, the fluid is yellow
 
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