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1 .This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata. Got a minute?
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2 .Home-based bird watchers might have mixed up a batch of nectar to attract the feathered objects of their affection.
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3 .It's pretty easy, just mix sugar and water.
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4 .But the real stuff is a lot more complex, nearly all nectars are laced with amino acids, and some contain alkaloids, like nicotine and caffeine.
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5 .So what's the plants' motivation for producing such chemicals?
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6 ."It's possible that this is an antimicrobial adaptation of plants, they're toxifying their nectar to protect it from spoilage by yeast or other microbes."
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7 .Leif Richardson, an ecologist at the University of Vermont.
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8 .He says the compounds might also be a chemical defense.
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9 ."Maybe the compounds are deterrent to nectar robbers, who take nectar without pollinating."
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10 .And yes, "nectar robbing is indeed a thing."
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11 .But Richardson and his colleagues have come up with yet another function for nectar's chemicals: as medicine for bees.
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12 .They found compounds in the nectar of wild tobacco, linden, and white turtlehead flowers that cut the numbers of a common gut parasite in bumblebees by as much as 80 percent.
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13 .The results are in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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14 .The big unanswered question here is whether bees might actually self-medicate when they're sick.
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15 .Preliminary work suggests they do.
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16 .And if that notion holds true, farmers and home gardeners alike could boost bee health, simply by growing plants that serve up the right medicine.
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17 .Thanks for the minute, for Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
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