A recipe for the pitcher plant's chemical concoction

Pitcher plant, courtesy of the American Chemical Society. Click here for a high resolution version.

Everyone knows that many animals are meat eaters. They are “carnivorous.” People who eat meat buy it in restaurants and stores. Lions, tigers, and other wild animals catch and kill their meat.

But can you imagine carnivorous plants!? Can you imagine plants that attract, capture, kill and eat animals" Splash! Gurgle! Slurp! These are the sounds of the “pitcher plant” — also known as Nepenthes alata — scarfing down another unsuspecting insect meal.

This bug-eating plant uses a sweet smell and alluring colors to lure flies, ants, and other insects to its cup-shaped leaf. The unsuspecting bug climbs in, and drowns in a watery fluid at the bottom of the pitcher. That fluid contains substances that digest the insect, almost like a fox’s stomach digests a tasty mouse.

For more than 100 years, scientists have tried to discover the full chemical recipe for the pitcher plant’s digestive juices. Now two Japanese scientists have finally figured out this complex cocktail of digestive juices.

Tatsuro Hamada and Naoya Hatano found seven different kinds of chemicals in the pitcher’s fluid. Three of these substances have never been found anywhere else in the world.

These chemicals also help preserve bugs in the pitcher plant’s pitcher. Without them, the bugs would rot and stink. These chemicals may be of use to people. Chemists may use them to make new medicines that keep you germ-free or get rid of pests on a farmer’s crops.

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Their study appeared in the February issue of ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research, a monthly journal.

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The American Chemical Society — the world’s largest scientific society — is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.