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July 14, 2010 - Think humans are the only living creatures that are hooked on caffeine? Well think again.
Scientists at the University of Haifa (Israel) found that bees may actually prefer nectar traced with caffeine and nicotine over nectar without.
Flower nectar which is typically composed of sugars - is a plants way of attracting potential pollinators and ensuring the propagation of the plant species. Although the concentrations of caffeine can vary significantly - caffeine levels in tobacco producing plants range about 2.5mg/L, while caffeine in citrus type plants can be 4-7x higher (or about 11-17.5mg/L) - the highest concentration found in grapefruit with about 94.2mg/L. (Who knew there was caffeine in grapefruit?)
In the study researchers presented bees with both normal and nectar traced with caffeine - the result: bees preferred nectar with caffeine!. Why would a bee would prefer nectar traced with nicotine/caffeine?
Well, the exact reason remains unknown especially when you consider that the vast majority of these
alkaloids (ie. caffeine, nicotine) and numerous others tend to be quite toxic in nature. But one theory holds that these plants evolved over time to produce nectar traced with caffeine to somehow
"hook" potential pollinators over those plants that dont....interesting idea.
So what does this have to do with coffee? Perhaps more than we think. |
