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Step 17Find a cat
Now it's time to build that cat army!* Find yourself a cat, uncap the vial, and let him/her get a good whiff. The effects are just the same as with catnip; immediately the critter will be propelled into a frenzied state of sniffing, scratching, rolling, cage fighting, you name it. Enjoy, and give yourself a pat on the back for completing a nice bit of kitchen chemistry.
A note about safety. Yes, it is safe to use this extract on cats. I have looked into it, and there are a number of studies (very interesting in their own right) using pure nepetalactone on cats in experiments trying to figure out why it causes them to go bonkers. The upshot is that it's pretty safe. In the last of the references below, the LD50 of nepetalactone was determined to be 1550 mg/kg (about the same as aspirin), meaning you would have to force feed your average 5 kg cat ~8 grams in order to cause it any harm. So as long as you are reasonable with the extract it should pose no harm.
If you are interested in learning more about the chemistry of catnip and nepetalactone, may I suggest the following primary references.
nepetalactone isolation and characterization:
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1941(63), 1558-1563
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1942(64), 1828-1831
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1955(77), 1599-1605
behavior/metabolism/toxicology studies on cats
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0163-1047(85)91151-3 Behav. Neural. Biol. 1985(44), 38-46]
Science 1969(164), 1281-1282
Lloydia 1978(41), 367-374
Finally, I would like to acknowledge Dr. David C. for his kind donation of a GC/MS reference sample, laboratory helper Melissa A. and most importantly, Mer, the intrepid kitty with an appetite for catnip.
A note about safety. Yes, it is safe to use this extract on cats. I have looked into it, and there are a number of studies (very interesting in their own right) using pure nepetalactone on cats in experiments trying to figure out why it causes them to go bonkers. The upshot is that it's pretty safe. In the last of the references below, the LD50 of nepetalactone was determined to be 1550 mg/kg (about the same as aspirin), meaning you would have to force feed your average 5 kg cat ~8 grams in order to cause it any harm. So as long as you are reasonable with the extract it should pose no harm.
If you are interested in learning more about the chemistry of catnip and nepetalactone, may I suggest the following primary references.
nepetalactone isolation and characterization:
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1941(63), 1558-1563
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1942(64), 1828-1831
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1955(77), 1599-1605
behavior/metabolism/toxicology studies on cats
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0163-1047(85)91151-3 Behav. Neural. Biol. 1985(44), 38-46]
Science 1969(164), 1281-1282
Lloydia 1978(41), 367-374
Finally, I would like to acknowledge Dr. David C. for his kind donation of a GC/MS reference sample, laboratory helper Melissa A. and most importantly, Mer, the intrepid kitty with an appetite for catnip.
- Note: pure nepetalactone will not enable you to create a cat army.
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Anyone who concentrates down 56lb of catnip and force-feeds it to their cat can hardly be surprised when something bad happens.
Not a bad Instructable.
I'd never seen the method for steam distillation that was used. That method is the traditional method used for extracting essential oils for things, and after seeing the laboratory grade steam distiller, It suprised me.
After that, Eh... i think the yield could be improved by doing 1 thing different.
If you nuetralized your pH prior to your drying step you'd waste less product.