How does catnip work?

You've probably heard that catnip drives felines wild, but did you know that it's a plant related to mint? And that it doesn't affect all cats? Find out how catnip works in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Brainstuff from house Stuff Works dot Com, where
smart happens him Marshall Brain with today's question, how does
catnip work? Catnip is the common name for a perennial
herb of the mint family. It's a native to Europe
and is an import to the United States and other countries.

(00:21):
The cat nep plant is now a widespread weed in
most of North America. Given to the right cat, cat
ip can cause an amazing reaction. The cat will ruvenant,
roll over it, kick at it, sometimes foam at the mouth,
and generally go nuts for several minutes. Then the cat
will lose all interest and walk away. Two hours later,

(00:43):
the cat may come back and have exactly the same
response again. Because there really isn't any scent that causes
this sort of reaction in human beings, catip is hard
for us to understand. However, it's not an uncommon behavior
in animals that rely heavily on their noses. For example,
there are many sense that will trigger intense hunting behaviors

(01:06):
and dogs, and other sense will cause dogs to stop
in their tracks and roll all over that set. Although
no one knows exactly what happens inside the cat's brain.
It is known that there is one particular chemical and
cat nip that is the thing that triggers this weird response. Apparently,
the chemical somehow kicks off as stereotypical patterning cats that

(01:31):
are sensitive to the chemical. The catnip reaction is inherited,
and some cats are totally unaffected by it. Large cats
like tigers, can be sensitive to it as well. The
reaction to cat nip only lasts for a few minutes,
then the cat acclimates to it, and it can take
an hour or two away from the catnip for the
cat to reset, then the same reaction could occur again.

(01:55):
Very young kittens and older cats seem less likely to
have a reaction to at now. Do you have any
ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send
me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com.
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check out the brain stuff blog on the how stuffworks

(02:16):
dot com home page.