What Is Cat Nip?
Catnip is a mint also known as catmint, cat's-play, catrup, catwort and field balm. Humans use the flowers and tip of the weed-like plant to make natural medicines for relieving stomach cramps and treating colds, similar to other types of mint. Catnip is most known for its effect on a wide variety of felines, including some tigers, which receive pleasure from smelling the plant and begin to act in unusual ways.
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Origins
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Catnip is a plant, a member of the mint family with the scientific name Nepeta cataria. It was originally found in Europe by early scientists but has since migrated to countries across the world. The plant grows easily and sometimes prolifically, and many gardeners consider it to be a weed. As a mint it is more accurately a wild herb that grows perennially.
Features
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Catnip without flowers, courtesy www.alaskancloudbuster.com
Catnip grows to around 3 feet high, sending up stalks covered with a gray down that end in clusters of flowers that develop in the spring and summer. The plant is most easily recognized by its whitish or lavender-color flower clusters and toothy, heart-shaped leaves, which are also covered with a light down, especially on the underside.
Active Ingredients
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Catnip secretes a number of aromatic oils to both attract beneficial insects and ward away dangerous pests. One of these oils is a unique compound known as nepetalactone, which is a very mild hallucinogen that affects felines is a specific manner. The cats must inhale the compound for it to be effective, and cats tend to use their vomeronasal organ to breathe in the scent through their mouths and into their nasal passageways.
Effects
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Nepetalactone does not affect all cats in the same way, and has no effect at all on some cats. Generally, susceptibility to the oil is hereditary and is only found in certain families or along certain breeding lines. In cats that are affected, symptoms include nuzzling and rubbing the source of the oil, rolling, making noise and exhibiting a general intoxicated appearance that lasts for a short time. Cats will then be unaffected by catnip for around an hour after exposure, enough time for their nasal passages and brains to remove the effects of the scent. Scientists believe nepetalactone causes a psychosexual reaction in such cats, leading to the strange and often ecstatic behavior.
Using Catnip
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Although catnip can be made into a tea and drunk like other types of mint, its most common use is in cat toys, where it is added in leaf or oil form. Again, this only works in cats that have the proper genes, and some cats, especially those descended from lines that developed in areas where catnip is indigenous, are likely to be immune. Catnip's potency will also fade over time as the oil dissipates, but it only takes a small amount for susceptible cats to react.
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