Every cat owner has offered their cat a sniff or taste of catnip and giggled at the ensuing nuttiness of their furry friend, but what exactly is catnip and why do cats go head over paws for it?
Catnip Nepeta cataria is an herb in the mint family. It is a perennial plant, originally native to Europe, Asia and the Middle East, but now widely cultivated throughout the world.
Also known as catswort, catmint, field balm and many other names, this plant is used in many ways, including for its mildly sedative effects on humans and medicinal uses in different forms, including teas. Most familiar, however, is its use for feline entertainment. Not all cats are sensitive to catnip, but it is believed that percent of cats of all breeds, and even large predatory cats, have at least some sensitivity to the herb.
The researchers believe that understanding the production of these nepetalactones could help them recreate the way that plants synthesise other chemicals like vinblastine, which is used for chemotherapy.
This could lead to the ability to create these useful medicines more efficiently and quickly than we are currently able to harvest them from nature. Usually in plants, for example peppermint, terpenes are formed by a single enzyme. In their paper published online this week in Nature Chemical Biology , the researchers report that in catnip terpenes are formed in a two-step process; an enzyme activates a precursor compound which is then grabbed by a second enzyme to produce the substance of interest.
This two-step process has previously never been observed, and the researchers also expect something similar is occurring in the synthesis of anti-cancer drugs vincristine and vinblastine from Madagascan periwinkle, Catharanthus roseus, and elsewhere in olive and snapdragon.
In the publication, the team describe the process by which catmint produces nepetalactone in microscopic glands on the underside of its leaves. The study also identifies three new enzymes with unusual activity. Dr Benjamin Lichman, who conducted the work while a post-doc at John Innes Centre and who is now a lecturer at the University of York, says: "We have made significant progress in understanding how catnip makes nepetalactones, the chemicals that sends cats crazy.
Catnip is performing unusual and unique chemical processes, and we plan to use these to help us create useful compounds that can be used in treatment of diseases such as cancer.
We are also working to understand the evolution of catnip to understand how it came to produce the cat-active chemicals. Professor Sarah O'Connor, project leader at the John Innes Centre, says: "Nepetalactones have potential use in agriculture as they participate in certain plant-insect interactions. In future work we will explore the roles that these compounds have in plants. Materials provided by John Innes Centre.
But it doesn't end there. Cats are generally calm and collected animals that don't lose their cool often, which makes their behavior while on catnip even more extraordinary. While they can be goofy, mischievous, and playful whenever they please, nothing gets them going like catnip which is the reason why so much research has been done about it.
No matter how intriguing, exactly how catnip produces this feline high was a mystery to scientists for so long. A study has come forward though, and it suggests that the key intoxicating chemicals in the catnip activates cats' opioid systems -- which is what heroin and morphine do in people, per a press release. The study was published in Science Advances. Catnip, Nepeta cataria , is a member of the minty family. The researchers showed that its active ingredient, nepetalactone, causes the reactions we see in cats.
Domestic cats are not the only ones who are affected by it though, since you can see lions and tigers enjoying the plant as well.
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