UMass Amherst study of bee health finds no natural medicine in once-promising compound

(University of Massachusetts at Amherst) Ph.D. student Evan Palmer-Young and advisor evolutionary ecologist Lynn Adler had reported in 2015 that a parasitic infection of bumble bees, Crithidia bombi, was reduced when the bees fed on anabasine, a natural alkaloid, in sugar water. They had hoped their finding was evidence that bees may use 'nature's medicine cabinet' to rid themselves of the intestinal parasite. But they report in the current issue of PLOS ONE that result was not repeated.
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: news