Question
I am a high school botany teacher, and one of my students is doing some research on Napentheses.  He would like to conduct an experiment to see if it is the enzymes or the sugar that helps to trap the insect in the liquid.  He will be filling vials with real Nepentheses liquid, water, and a sugar solution that is equivalent or close to the sugar solution in the liquid (without enzymes!).  He will then drop crickets into the liquid and make observations.  The problem is, he can't find any information about what chemical components make up the liquid.  We know there is sugar and enzymes, but we'd like to know an actual sugar concentration.  Thanks so much for your anticipated reply!!!

Answer
Hi Abbie,

This is going to get into some fairly involved biochemistry.  Digestion in Nepenthes pitchers is often a complex interaction of secreted enzymes, combined with bacteria and symbiotic creatures that live in the pitchers.  This can also be very species specific.

I'm going to direct you to a couple different books.  The first is: Juniper, Barrie Edward; Robins, Richard J. and Joel, Daniel M.: "The
    Carnivorous Plants". Academic Press, London or San Diego, 1989. ISBN  This book is the bible on carnivorous plant biochemistry.  Unfortunately, it's a bit hard to find.  You may need to see if it can be borrowed on loan from a University.  I know I saw a copy of it at the University of Washington a few years ago.  Next would be the Charles Clarke books on Nepethes:  Nepenthes of Borneo, Nepenthes Sumatra and Penisular Malaysia.  He goes into some detail on digestion, but not quite as much biochemistry.  He also talks much more about the symbiotes.

If you do a search on the internet for papers on Nepenthes digestion, you may be able to turn up some more recent research.

Hope this helps.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com