SOURCE:
perdue.edu
CATNIP
Nepeta cataria
(mint family)
TOXICITY RATING: Low
ANIMALS AFFECTED: Cats.
DANGEROUS PARTS OF PLANT: Stems, leaves.
CLASS OF SIGNS: Behavioral changes.
PLANT DESCRIPTION: Catnip has all the characteristic
earmarks of a member of the mint family: stems square in cross-section,
leaves opposite and fragrant, and small flowers in tight clusters
at the ends of branches. This perennial herb may grow up to 3
feet tall and be highly branched. The gray-green to green leaves
are heart-shaped with scalloped edges and are often crowded toward
the top of the plant. The flowers are white, dotted with purple,
two-lipped, and produce four tiny, dark nutlets per flower.
SIGNS: Only cats are affected, and some cats are affected more
than others. Aromatic oils and the monoterpene, nepetalactone,
cause the signs. Cats will rub and sometime ingest the plant,
and then act "drunk" or "wild" for up to an
hour or more. No lasting toxicity is reported. If excessive
amounts are ingested, vomiting and diarrhea can result, but the
signs are self-limiting. Catnip can be considered as a legal
recreational drug for cats!
FIRST AID: None is required.
SAFETY IN PREPARED FEEDS: Not applicable.
PREVENTION: Catnip is safe, however avoid excessive ingestion
since vomiting or diarrhea may occur.
[Top]
SOURCE:
holoweb.com
Taken as a hot infusion, Catnip
promotes sweating and is beneficial for colds, flus, fevers, and
infectious childhood diseases. It is soothing to the nervous
system and calming to the stomach. It aids with flatulence,
diarrhea, and colic. It is sometimes used as an enema to cleanse
and heal the lower bowel (use in diluted form). Catnip helps to
prevent miscarriage and premature birth as well as allays morning
sickness.
Catnip, a member of the mint
family, is a harmless "high" for felines. Although many
cats will eat it, scientists say they're reacting to the smell
rather than the taste. Felines bite, chew, rub against, and roll
in catnip to release the volatile oil trapped in the leaves.
Catnip is harvested when this essential oil production reaches
its peak, and leaves and fragrant flowers are carefully air-dried
to preserve essential oils at their best.
About 80% of adult cats --
including lions, pumas, and leopards! -- react to this
irresistible, intoxicating, analgesic soporific. The tendency to
like or ignore catnip is inherited, and it's true that some cats
are immune to its influence.
Catnip, Nepeta cataria, is a
mint family member said to be an import that went wild and now
flourishes everywhere. It grows about 2' tall. The leaves are
downy above and below, a little larger than peppermint leaves. By
the 1890's, Ojibwe women were using it. It had a Native name,
Gajugensibug, and was said to be a good tea to drink to bring
down fevers, as well as pleasant-tasting.
[Top]
SOURCE:
Penn State
The genus Nepeta may be derived from the Roman town of Nepeti,
where catnip was valued and cultivated long ago. The colonists brought
catnip to America, and it was listed as a commercial crop in 1796
by an American geographer. It has since escaped into the landscape.
Some believe the plant is named after its ability to lure and charm
felines.
Aromatic, culinary, decorative, and medicinal.
Dried leaves add fragrance to potpourris. The leaves are also used
in salads and tea. Fresh leaves can be rubbed on raw meat as a tenderizer
or mixed with olive oil and seasonings for a marinade. Catnip is used
to make light yellow dye. The dried leaves are used in cat toys. The
plant can be grown as an ornamental in lightly shaded areas or in
containers. It is said to have some medicinal qualities.
[Top]
SOURCE:
VetCentric
You feel shady, like you ought to be slipping your cat the packet in a back alley while keeping an eye out for the police.
The cat has no such qualms. It tears into the stuff right there—sniffing, pawing, lapping it up, chewing it, meowing, rubbing its head and body into it as though it wants to become one with the brown-green herb, rolling over and over it, scattering it around the floor.
Then it lies there, looking seriously blissed out, possibly wondering where to find some nachos.
All right, maybe that last bit is a little too anthropomorphic. But the zonked-out animal on your floor has obviously just experienced some kind of high. And don’t you feel guilty, pushing your evil catnip and corrupting an innocent animal?
Probably not. "It’s fun to watch," said Dr. Kent Davis, a cat owner and assistant professor in community practice at the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Champaign-Urbana. "It doesn’t cause harm. It’s not addictive. We’re not sure how it works or why."
What is known is this: catnip is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae. When the branches are broken and bruised, the herb releases nepetalactone, a kind of chemical.
Cats have a special receptor for the nepetalactone molecule that activates when it inhales the scent—even though your cat eats the herb, that won’t cause the reaction. It has to be breathed in.
Once that happens, the cat goes a little nuts, behaving like it’s in heat—though both males and females react the same way. The high lasts five to 15 minutes, and then it’s over. The cat won’t react again to catnip for about an hour. So don’t worry about your cat turning into a junkie, Dr. Davis said. "There’s a line of tolerance."
Catnip can make a cat vomit or give it diarrhea if it eats too much of it, though, so dole it out carefully.
Not all cats react to catnip. A dominant gene—inherited from one or both parents—causes the response. About 25 percent of cats don’t respond at all. Kittens won’t be affected until they’re about three months old.
[Top]
|
SOURCE:
botanical.com
---Habitat---Catmint or Catnep, a wild English plant belonging to the large family Labiatae, of which the Mints and Deadnettles are also members, is generally distributed throughout the central and the southern counties of England, in hedgerows, borders of fields, and on dry banks and waste ground, especially in chalky and gravelly soil. It is less common in the north, very local in Scotland and rare in Ireland, but of frequent occurrence in the whole of Europe and temperate Asia, and also common in North Armerica, where originally. however. it was an introduced species.
---Description---The root is perennial and sends up square, erect and branched stems, 2 to 3 feet high, which are very leafy and covered with a mealy down. The heartshaped, toothed leaves are also covered with a soft, close down, especially on the under sides, which are quite white with it, so that the whole plant has a hoary, greyish appearance, as though it had had dust blown over it.
The flowers grow on short footstalks in dense whorls, which towards the summit of the stem are so close as almost to form a spike. They are in bloom from July to September. The individual flowers are small, the corollas two-lipped, the upper lip straight, of a whitish or pale pink colour, dotted with red spots, the anthers a deep red colour. The calyx tube has fifteen ribs, a distinguishing feature of the genus Nepeta, to which this species belongs.
---History---The plant has an aromatic, characteristic odour, which bears a certain resemblance to that of both Mint and Pennyroyal. It is owing to this scent that it has a strange fascination for cats, who will destroy any plant of it that may happen to be bruised. There is an old saying about this plant:
'If you set it, the cats will eat it,
If you sow it, the cats don't know it.'
And it seems to be a fact that plants transplanted are always destroyed by cats unless protected, but they never meddle with the plants raised from seed, being only attracted to it when it is in a withering state, or when the peculiar scent of the plant is excited by being bruised in gathering or transplanting.
- In France the leaves and young shoots are used for seasoning, and it is regularly grown amongst kitchen herbs for the purpose. Both there and in this country, it has an old reputation for its value as a medicinal herb. Miss Bardswell, in The Herb Garden, writes of Catmint:
- 'Before the use of tea from China, our English peasantry were in the habit of brewing Catmint Tea, which they said was quite as pleasant and a good deal more wholesome. Ellen Montgomery in The Wide, Wide World made Catmint Tea for Miss Fortune when she was ill. It is stimulating. The root when chewed is said to make the most gentle person fierce and quarrelsome, and there is a legend of a certain hangman who could never screw up his courage to the point of hanging anybody till he had partaken of it. Rats dislike the plant particularly, and will not approach it even when driven by hunger.'
This dislike of rats for Catmint might well be utilized by growing it round other valuable crops as a protective screen.
Closely allied to the Catmint is the Ground Ivy (Nepeta glechoma, Benth.), named Glechoma hederacea by Linnaeus.
---Cultivation---Catmint is easily grown in any garden soil, and does not require moisture in the same way as the other Mints. It may be increased by dividing the plants in spring, or by sowing seeds at the same period. Sow in rows, about 20 inches apart, thinning out the seedlings to about the same distance apart as the plants attain a considerable size. They require no attention, and will last for several years if the ground is kept free from weeds. The germinating power of the seeds lasts five years.
Catmint forms a pretty border plant, especially in conjunction with Hyssop, the soft blues blending pleasingly, and it is also a suitable plant for the rock garden.
---Part Used Medicinally---The flowering tops are the part utilized in medicine and are harvested when the plant is in full bloom in August.
---Medicinal Action and Uses---Carminative, tonic, diaphoretic, refrigerant and slightly emmenagogue, specially antispasmodic, and mildly stimulating.
Producing free perspiration, it is very useful in colds. Catnep Tea is a valuable drink in every case of fever, because of its action in inducing sleep and producing perspiration without increasing the heat of the system. It is good in restlessness, colic, insanity and nervousness, and is used as a mild nervine for children, one of its chief uses being, indeed, in the treatment of children's ailments. The infusion of 1 OZ. to a pint of boiling water may be taken by adults in doses of 2 tablespoonsful, by children in 2 or 3 teaspoonsful frequently, to relieve pain and flatulence. An injection of Catnep Tea is also used for colicky pains.
The herb should always be infused, boiling will spoil it. Its qualities are somewhat volatile, hence when made it should be covered up.
The tea may be drunk freely, but if taken in very large doses when warm, it frequently acts as an emetic.
It has proved efficacious in nervous headaches and as an emmenagogue, though for the latter purpose, it is preferable to use Catnep, not as a warm tea, but to express the juice of the green herb and take it in tablespoonful doses, three times a day.
An injection of the tea also relieves headache and hysteria, by its immediate action upon the sacral plexus. The young tops, made into a conserve, have been found serviceable for nightmare.
Catnep may be combined with other agents of a more decidedly diaphoretic nature. Equal parts of warm Catnep tea and Saffron are excellent in scarlet-fever and small-pox, as well as colds and hysterics. It will relieve painful swellings when applied in the form of a poultice or fomentation.
Old writers recommended a decoction of the herb, sweetened with honey for relieving a cough, and Culpepper tells us also that 'the juice drunk in wine is good for bruises,' and that 'the green leaves bruised and made into an ointment is effectual for piles,' and that 'the head washed with a decoction taketh away scabs, scurf, etc.'
Bear in mind "A Modern Herbal" was written with the conventional wisdom of the early 1900's. This should be taken into account as some of the information may now be considered inaccurate, or not in accordance with modern medicine.
A Modern Herbal, first published in 1931, by Mrs. M. Grieve,
contains Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation
and Folk-Lore of Herbs.
[Top]
|
