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Is it true?

A rumor I heard before, about a nepenthes people use to drink from the pitcher's fluid. I don't know if its for the taste or maybe a remedy
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well that is kinda true , only desperate people in serach for water would do that . there are alot of thing people do with neps . some of the tendrils are used to make rope i believe and sometimes fencing . the liquid in the pitcher before it opens can be used as a pain killer , eye wash , temprory reliever of burns, asthma , cuts indigestion , heart burn , stomach ailments , dysentary ,and whetever . some pople drink water that has been collected by the pitcher as i said , but only in desperate times , "As repulsive as it sounds , even insect debris-laden water is refreshing to those suffering thrist in the tropucs ! " the roots can be used to reduce fevers . the pitcher can be cleaned out and used to scopp things up such as grains of rice and water , they can even be used as cups . today the pitchers are even used to cook rice in , some people say it enchances the flavor of it . this is what i read and have heard about it .
 
Yes, there are historical accounts in books of famous explorers in the Asian tropics drinking the insect laden pitcher water but I wouldn't do it just because! Under choice of death by thirst or chugging a few possibly disease ridden jungle insects and digestive juices/old rainwater I guess I'd take a sip, albeit reluctant ones!
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Once rinsed out the pitchers do make fine water scoops and would probably hold together through steam/boiling type cooking quite well, sort of like a tough stuffed pepper. I haven't eaten rice or meats cooked in a pitcher but I might try it sometime. I've tasted the nectar that forms on the peristomes of a few of my plants. Mostly it reminds me of corn syrup. Definately sweet and sugary but with no definable flavor.
 
There ya go goldtrap.

I have drunk (clean, unopened&#33
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pitcher fluid before, doesn't taste like much of anything really, maybe a bit like herbal water? Didn't have any effect on me, that I noticed.

This trip coming up I am going to try cooking some rice in a few pitchers so I'll let you know how it tastes.

Cheers, Troy.
 
Okay.. this may gross you out.. so be warned.

At a local nursery where they sell neps, I was eying the collection and right then a whole group of people came up and started drinking the pitcher fluid, the open pitcher fluid, bugs and all. They tell me it is a great remedy for stomach ailments, and a staple medicine back home. Unfortuanately at the time it didn't occur to me to ask them where they were from.
 
I have a Documentary TV show on video tape, called 'Death Traps and Life Lines', by the well known German CP expert, Tomas Carow. There is a segment, which shows indigenous people in Borneo drinking the fluid from N. rafflesiana, both from open and un-opened pitchers. Also, it shows an elder washing his face and eyes with the fluid from an unopened pitcher. This is all apparently done because of the antiseptic properties of the fluid.

So yes, it's true.

Vic
 
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