Not just a high: Catnip provides chemical defense for our feline friends, study finds

The frenzied behavior your feline friends exhibit when graced with catnip’s presence is no unusual sight to see. But now, new research out of Japan says cats aren’t just trying to get high, they’re also trying to defend themselves from pesky mosquitoes.

It’s all thanks to a substance called nepetalactol, which can be extracted from catnip and silver vine leaves — a cousin of the catnip plant. The team learned it is this substance that causes the crazed rolling and rubbing cats do when they sniff the herbs.

And calling the fuss a “high” isn’t a figure of speech, either. The researchers discovered the substance activates the part of cats’ nervous systems responsible for “euphoric” effects, similar to those found in and experienced by people on drugs.

It’s an event that can last anywhere between five and 15 minutes, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, and is typically followed by a period of unresponsiveness.

After applying a synthetic version of nepetalactol on laboratory paper strips and sticking them inside cages carrying cats, the researchers witnessed the animals — both domestic and wild — rubbing, licking and rolling around like they do with catnip-filled toys. They even tested the substance on larger felines, including a jaguar, leopard and lynx.

But the team didn’t stop there.

Scientists have always been aware of catnip’s ability to ward off thirsty insects, so the researchers placed more nepetalactol-slathered paper strips on the floor, walls and ceilings of some cat cages and unleashed a dozen or so mosquitoes.

Cats that rubbed themselves on the chemical substance were gorged on less than those that did not have the natural repellent on their fur. The same happened when cats were placed in “a more natural setting,” the researchers said.

“We found that the cats’ reaction to silver vine is a chemical defense against mosquitoes, and perhaps against viruses and parasitic insects,” project leader Dr. Masao Miyazaki, a veterinary scientist at Iwate University in Japan, said in a news release.

Catnip expert Sarah O’Connor, a biochemist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Germany, told The New York Times there are still many unanswered questions, such as how well the natural mosquito repellent fares in the wild.

Although “a compelling explanation,” O’Connor told the outlet, “I think it needs more evidence to prove it.”

The research team agrees there’s more to be discovered about catnip and mosquito activity. The team hopes to find answers by identifying the gene responsible for cats’ reactions to the plants.