Cucurbitacins: Specific Insect Attractants in Cucurbitaceae

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In vivo studies of cucurbitacins, the bitter principles present in Cucurbitaceae, indicated a quantitative relation between the concentrations of cucurbitacin in the plant and the degree of insect feeding. In vitro studies demonstrated the attractiveness of these compounds when they were separated from influences of other components of the host plants.