Catnip planting and care in the open field growing from seeds species and varieties photo. Planting a catnip and caring for it. Catnip care

The catnip (lat. Nepeta cataria), also popularly known as "catnip", is a perennial medicinal herb of the family of lacustrine plants. The catnip got its unusual name due to the essential oil contained in it, which has a lemon scent and attracts cats like valerian. The European-Central Asian species of catnip is found almost everywhere on the continent: in Central and Southern Europe, in the Caucasus, in Western and Central Asia, in India, Pakistan and Nepal in the subtropical zone. In Russia, this plant is widespread throughout the European part of the country, as well as in the south of Western Siberia and the Far East.

Catnip has a branched root system, a high (up to a meter) fluffy stem, triangular-heart-shaped leaves and purple or lilac semi-umbrella flowers, collected in a brush. The flowering period is June-July.

The entire aerial part of the plant is used for food. To dry, the catnip must be harvested during the flowering period, that is, from June to August. The stems should be cut at a height of ten centimeters. Air dry under a canopy or in a well-ventilated area. You can store a dried catnip for two years.

Mown in summer, during flowering, the plant blooms again in late summer - early autumn

In addition to essential oil, catnip contains tannins, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), cardiac glycosides, saponins. The essential oil contains carvaclol, which has a powerful antibacterial effect. An organic compound called pulegon is responsible for the mint-like scent.

Useful properties and use cases

The list of medicinal properties of catnip is really huge. Catnip has anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, diaphoretic, expectorant, antitussive and tonic properties. It helps fight phlegm and nasal congestion by thinning thick discharge. The use of decoctions and herbal infusions helps to increase appetite, improve digestion, normalize the work of the gastrointestinal tract; such tinctures are especially indicated for those suffering from hypoacid gastritis. But that's not all - clinical experiments have confirmed the effectiveness of the use of catnip for cardiac neuroses. Found its ability to increase the amplitude of heart contractions up to 40 percent. And here it should be noted that since this plant accelerates the heart rate, it is contraindicated in tachycardia.

Catnip is often added to herbal antidepressants. The plant is also used for external use. Catnip-based ointments are used to treat boils, skin inflammations, and tumors. You can rinse your hair with broths to strengthen them.

When it comes to cooking, catnip is a great spice. It resembles lemon balm in taste and aroma. But, unlike lemon balm, it retains a rich aroma even after drying. Its leaves and young shoots are used both fresh and dried, and added to main courses (especially fish), spicy-sweet sauces, drinks and sweets. For herbal teas, it is good to combine catnip with mint and rose petals. You can also use catnip for salting and pickling. To flavor regular tea, just put a couple of leaves in the cup. But to brew catnip in its pure form is best looking at night. The plant has a powerful sedative effect, therefore it is advisable to use teas, decoctions and infusions with it before bedtime. The cattleman is very effective in combating anxiety and insomnia.

Catnip essential oil, prized for its rich herbaceous-citrus scent, has found application in the perfumery and soap making industries. A few drops of this oil can be added to the bath before bed.

The catnip is a valuable melliferous plant, so beekeepers love to cultivate it.

Despite the fact that catnip grows like a weed, it is highly regarded by landscape designers. Firstly, this perennial plant is unpretentious and not demanding on the soil, it is easy to care for it. Secondly, it blooms with exquisite purple inflorescences and, being a melliferous flower, attracts many butterflies. Low-growing varieties are planted on alpine slides or in pots. Living borders are created from high ones. Cattlemen love dry and sunny places, and it is not at all necessary to water them (stagnant water can even be destructive for them). All these picky colors require is cropping. Finally, catnip is immune to powdery mildew and slugs. By planting a catnip on your garden plot, you will kill two birds with one stone: decorate your garden and get a harvest of a unique medicinal plant.

Catnip (Lemon Catnip) is an interesting plant. This herb has such a name for a reason: as a rule, it attracts the attention of cats with its soft pleasant smell, although it looks very much like ordinary mint.

Catnip (fragrant chandra) is a herbaceous perennial plant, once it grows in a certain place - then in the same place it will appear every season. The grass grows as medium-sized shrubs and can reach a height of 60-100 cm. Its leaves are slightly pubescent, have an oval-oblong shape, slightly pointed at the ends. As with ordinary mint or lemon balm, the leaves begin to emit a pleasant aroma with light rubbing. All this is due to the presence in them in a high concentration of essential oils.

The plant attracts cats not so much by its smell as by its bitter taste. They like to chew the leaves. Shandra blooms in summer with large paniculate inflorescences, which consist of a large number of small flowers. They can range in color from pure white to purple. It all depends on the specific variety.

It is a moisture-loving plant that will not flower where soil or other conditions are not satisfactory. Mint loves fertile weed-free land. Most often, such grass can be found in clean steppe zones. Some gardeners prefer to grow it in their plots.

Gallery: catnip (25 photos)

How to grow grass for cats (video)

Cooking applications

The catnip is used in cooking, which is also the case for mint. Most often, its leaves are used as a spice for meat and fish dishes, and they are also added to teas and various soft drinks. The catnip is most widespread in cooking in European countries, but in Russia this herb is gaining more and more popularity every day.

It is best to collect the leaves during flowering: during this period they will have the highest content of essential oils. Preference should be given to young and medium-sized leaves. Having collected a sufficient amount, they should be dried (but not in direct sunlight), and then scattered into bags or jars.

Catnip (chandra fragrant) is considered a herbaceous perennial plant

Subsequently, the leaves of such a herb are simply added to teas to give a special aroma and soothing properties.

Many people prefer to use fresh catnip leaves to make different types of cheeses. This herb is widely used in confectionery: experienced chefs add a small amount of it to the dough, after which it becomes softer and has a slight pleasant smell.

Cattleman in medicine

The plant contains essential oils, tannins and terpenes. All this in a complex makes this plant not only suitable for food purposes, but also an excellent medicinal component. Let's figure out what diseases can be successfully dealt with with the help of a catnip.

It is best to collect mint leaves during flowering: during this period they will have the highest content of essential oils

External use

Catnip is used to treat all kinds of skin diseases, good as an antiseptic and cooling agent. The extract of this plant is added to lotions and alcoholic tinctures for the face, as well as tonics and some gels.

Mint tincture is an excellent antimicrobial and fungicidal agent. To prepare it, you just need to pick up the leaves of this plant, rinse them thoroughly and fill them with pure alcohol or vodka at the rate of about 2 glasses of alcohol per 1 glass of grass. All this must be kept under a closed lid in a glass container for 10 days, then filtered and used as a lotion that needs to be treated with problem areas of the skin. For dry skin, it is not recommended to use this tincture often, as alcohol will dry it out even more.

Catnip is also used in the treatment of fungi, with a powerful fungicidal effect. Medical practice shows that if a fungus on the legs is detected in a timely manner and you start making warm baths with mint, then the disease will soon recede.

Catnip is widely used to treat all kinds of skin diseases as an antiseptic and cooling agent.

Treatment of internal organs and nervous system

For people who suffer from anorexia, you can use this remedy as an appetite stimulant. If you drink a decoction of the herb at least once a day for a month, the positive effect will certainly be noticeable.

Also noted a strong calming effect on the nervous system of peppermint broth. So, catnip is part of almost all heart and sedatives. In some pharmaceutical preparations, this herb is even the main active ingredient. Doctors advise taking potent remedies based on catnip or directly tincture of this herb exclusively at night, since as a result of a strong effect on the body, some reactions may be inhibited, and increased drowsiness will also be observed.

To properly prepare the broth, you need to take 2 tbsp. l. dry or fresh leaves of the herb of this miraculous plant and pour 2 cups of boiling water. Cover and let it brew for at least an hour. To get a stronger product, you can boil the leaves for a few minutes, and then let it brew in a glass container under a closed lid and cool.

Why cats love catnip (video)

The beneficial properties of mint do not mean that this herb can be taken by all, without exception, people. Before using catnip, the medicinal properties and contraindications should be fully studied in order to improve your health, but not harm yourself. It is important to adhere to the following recommendations:

1. Never use a decoction of the herb or medicines in which it is the main component, if you intend to drive a car or focus on any important matter. As a powerful sedative, peppermint is bound to cause drowsiness or lethargy.
2. Before treatment, you should consult your doctor for the presence of an individual intolerance to this plant. Rarely, but there are still cases of a minor allergic reaction.
3. Mint should be used with caution by pregnant and lactating women. In small dosages, when added to teas, this plant is even useful, but as for medicinal purposes, do not engage in amateur activities. It is best to try to breathe in the leaves and flowers of the grass - this will certainly have a beneficial effect on the body.

These 3 simple tips should be considered by all people who decide to improve their health by taking catnip decoctions or medications. Particular attention should be paid to dosages in the presence of chronic diseases in an acute form.

Being the most powerful pheromone for felines, catnip is widely used by people in medical and culinary practice. The beneficial properties of this plant can be enumerated for a long time. The exact mechanism of the effect of this herb on the psyche has not yet been fully understood. For this reason, many consider the plant even magical, using it in the process of meditation and for the preparation of love potions.

The perennial plant catnip belongs to the family of Lipoids. Among the people, catnip is known under the names catnip, cat drink, cat grass, field balm, catnip mint, lemon catnip, catnip, matoshnik, fragrant chandra, sore grass.

Outwardly, the plant resembles mint. It reaches a height of 40 to 100 cm. It has tetrahedral, branched stems. Oblong leaves are sharp, pubescent, cordate-ovate, pollen. Catnip flowers are five-membered, small, whitish, two-lipped, have purple dots on the lower “lip”. They can be pure white or bluish purple in color. All of them are collected in spike-shaped inflorescences, with a diameter of 1.5-2.5 cm and a length of 3.7-8 cm. The fruit is an elliptical nutlet of brown color. Cat grass blooms in June-July. Fruiting in July-August.
The plant has a pleasant pungent aroma that resembles the lemon scent of lemon balm.

The catnip is found in Central, Eastern and Western Europe, Eastern Asia, Western Siberia, and the Caucasus. Catnip is cultivated in the USA and Canada. It grows in forests, overgrown bushes, meadows, fields, vegetable gardens, along river banks, near roads.

In the Middle Ages, few flowers were grown in the gardens (peonies, roses, lilies), but there were many aromatic and spicy herbs in them: lovage, rejuvenated, catnip, astrantia. It was imperative to grow these herbs, as they were used in the kitchen and had medicinal properties.

Collection and procurement of medicinal raw materials

For medicinal purposes, the ground part of the catnip is used: leaves, stem and flowers. The collection of raw materials is carried out during the flowering period, the grass is cut at a height of 10 cm, then dried under a canopy, in well-ventilated rooms or in the air.

Dry raw materials should have a green-gray color. It can be stored for up to 2 years. Usually after harvest, the plant grows back and blooms again in August-September. In the second or third year of life, the catnip gives the highest yield.

Chemical composition... Catnip herb contains essential oil with a pleasant lemon scent, vitamin C, saponins, glycosides, bitter and tannins.

Useful properties of catnip

For a long time, catnip has been used as a medicinal plant. Catnip herb has the following properties:

• anti-inflammatory,
• pain relievers
• bactericidal,
• fortifying,
• hemostatic
• antispasmodic,
• antipyretic
• expectorant
• calming,
• choleretic
• sweatshops,
• anthelmintic,
• regulating menstruation.

The use of catnip helps to increase appetite, improve digestion, and improve the functions of the stomach and intestines. Catnip preparations increase the amplitude of heart contractions, eliminate cramps.

Traditional medicine uses catnip for coughs, bronchitis, diseases of the stomach, intestines, liver, jaundice, anemia, anemia, heart neuroses, migraines, neurasthenia, hysteria, menstrual disorders, shortness of breath.

Catnip is used externally as an antibiotic for skin inflammations, furunculosis, scabies, acne, weeping eczema.
In lead poisoning, the plant can help relieve the condition.
Catnip essential oil has a high antimicrobial effect.
In folk medicine, catnip is used in the form of infusions and decoctions.

Recipes for infusions and decoctions

The use of catnip in cooking

In Eastern and European countries, the leaves and shoots of catnip are used as a spice, fresh and dry. It is used as a seasoning for pickling and salting, for flavoring fish and meat dishes, and is added to spicy-sweet sauces and drinks. The catnip is used for brewing tea. It gives a special taste and smell to confectionery products, and its essential oil, which has a strong lemon scent, is also used to flavor confectionery products.

Veterinary use of catnip

The use of catnip is good not only for humans, but also for animals. It is effectively used in veterinary medicine. Catnip has a beneficial effect on cats, they become affectionate, peaceful, playful, balanced, playful.

This action of the catnip applies to all felines: tigers, lions, leopards, pumas, and so on. In ancient times, when fishing for lynxes, catnip was used as bait.
Catnip acts in the opposite way on insects. The smell of this herb repels mosquitoes, cockroaches and other insects. Therefore, catnip essential oil is added to insect repellents.

Other properties of catnip

The smell of grass will help a person to relax and refresh, balance their emotions, and gain new strength.
Even in the Middle Ages, the magical properties of catnip were described. Its dried leaves were used as bookmarks in witchcraft books. It was effectively used in love magic, it was believed that the catnip helps to kindle love.

Catnip was used in love spells, spells to keep an unfaithful spouse. In gypsy magic, in order to attract a person, one had to drink catnip tea with honey before going on a date.

The areas of application of the catnip are very different. If you use this plant correctly, then it will become an assistant in a variety of situations.

Among the many species of mint, catnip, catnip or budra stand out. Is catnip useful and what is it for? The plant differs in numerous variants of peduncles, size and decorativeness. An invariable sign of a plant belonging to this species will be the love of all felines, regardless of their habitat. At the same time, it is noted that the effect of catnip on felines is less than that of valerian.

Description and photo of catnip

A plant with a strong scent with hints of lemon. In nature, the plant is short, with a tetrahedral stem. In this case, the stem does not grow up, but spreads along the soil, when it comes into contact with the ground in the nodes, it releases roots and spreads out, forming thickets. In culture, the stems grow upward, forming a beautiful carpet. The leaves on the shoots are opposite, the flowers are funnel-shaped, the lower petals resemble an elongated lip. Flowers are arranged in false whorls. There are dark dots on the lower petals. When broken, the stem has a pungent odor from a high concentration of essential oils.

The plant is cultivated in gardens, used as a pot plant for home gardening. Unpretentious catnip develops in the shade and at temperatures up to 25 degrees Celsius. Likes moderate. Of the pests for catnip, only the spider mite is terrible.

Why do cats love Budra?

It has long been known that cats love valerian. But not everyone knows about their indifference to Budra grass or catnip. At the same time, not only pets, but also the king of animals, and the graceful lynx is not averse to inhaling the aroma and nibbling a leaf of catnip. Zoologists have determined that during the period of puberty of this species of animals, the smell of a plant for them is comparable to the secretions of a female, ready for mating. Nepetaloctone is present in the essential oil of catnip. It is this substance that stimulates a third of sexually mature males. Others calmly tolerate his aroma.

Catnip is a pheromone for cats. The action of nepeetalactone is directed at the cerebellum and hypothalamus. The cerebellum shapes the behavior of cats in response to stimuli received. However, for kittens up to six months and most of the adults, the plant does not give a behavioral response, like a female. Animals are calm about the thickets of the catnip in the country flower bed.

Useful properties of catnip for humans

Numerous names for catnip indicate its distribution throughout the world. Why do people need catnip? It is known for its decorative and medicinal properties. It is used by:

• creating garden compositions;
• in cooking;
• for medicinal purposes.

In landscape design, cultural forms of catnip are used. Ornamental plants are used to collect medicinal raw materials. They bring beauty to the creation of rockeries and rocky gardens. However, a special decorative effect is obtained by creating flower beds of perennials on well-fertilized soil. Catnip gratefully responds to watering. At the same time, the flower brushes of plants become longer. It is not always possible to recognize an inconspicuous forest dweller in a decorative luxurious flower.

During the first year after planting, catnip is not cut to obtain medicinal raw materials. Harvesting begins in the second year, while the entire aerial part of the plant is used. Only stems 10 cm high are left. Plants are dried in bunches, leaves, flowers and plant stems are used. They are used as spices in cooking. There are few contraindications to the use of the seasoning. It is not recommended to use it for pregnant and lactating women.

However, traditionally in cooking, this herb is used less often than other aromatic plants. For treatment, it is used much more often. Applied infusions and decoctions:

• used as a cold remedy;
• hemostatic;
• fortifying;
• improves the functioning of the digestive system;
• eliminating convulsions;
• treating skin rashes, suppuration, inflammation.

Catnip broth relieves fever in case of colds. It helps to remove phlegm from the lungs with a dry cough. A decoction of catnip increases the immunity of a person exhausted by the disease, induces appetite. The analgesic effect of the infusion is used for abdominal pain. It relieves pain and helps relieve spasms. The ivy catnip, popularly nicknamed the fortik, which means forty diseases, has especially healing properties.

The essential oil of cat herb is also used. It is used as an antiseptic and is used in the preparation of meat, fish and sweet dishes. People with insomnia drink a cup of tea with catnip at night. In addition, this drug relieves sufferers of night cramps.

You can have fresh catnip leaves all year round. The plant at home becomes a medicine on the windowsill. For planting, you need to use a wide bowl, because the roots of the plant are superficial. Of course, this is possible if there is no cat, a lover of Budra, in the apartment.

Catnip Videos

There are 250 plant species in the catnip genus. They have a different smell, height, inflorescence shape and color. A pleasantly smelling herb - lemon catnip - belongs to this genus.

Popular names

The people call the catnip differently. There are places where it is called steppe mint, forest nettle, matinee or cat grass. In some regions, it is called field balm, cat drink, catnip mint. Often the plant is called a kitten, a fragrant chandra, a matoshnik. And it also happens that they call it sore grass and magpie.

The grass got its name "catnip" because it is adored by the tailed pussies living in our homes. Lemon catnip herb was prized by the ancient Egyptians, who deified cats. The plant in Egypt was intended for the sacred cat Bast, who personified the goddess of fun, femininity, fertility and dancing. The Egyptians brought this herb to the temple of the goddess Bast, inhabited by cats. They gave the catnip to the sacred animals with great respect.

For the Celts, catnip was a medicinal plant. He, along with other 15 medicinal herbs, constituted the medicinal base of Druidic medicine. Catnip was necessarily grown in medicinal gardens in medieval Europe. She held an honorable place in Chinese herb gardens.

Area

The homeland of the catnip is vast. Its thickets have mastered almost all of Eurasia, without affecting only its Arctic zones. He feels great in Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Siberia and the Caucasus. They have chosen the lands of the Far East and the vastness of Africa.

From its native lands, catnip migrated to the vastness of North America and Japan. It is cultivated in Western Europe and the USA. The plant is cultivated as a fragrant spice in Moldova.

The medicinal plant Lemon Catnip prefers to grow in forests, meadows and fields. It is found in shrubs, littered areas, roadsides and dry mountain slopes. Like a weed, catnip takes over vegetable gardens and orchards.

Botanical description

In appearance, the plant resembles a mint. Lemon catnip herb is a perennial that grows in height up to 40-100 centimeters. It has erect branching tetrahedral velvety-pubescent stems.

Her leaves are bluish in color. Their surfaces are pubescent. The length of the leaves is 2-8, and the width is 1.5-5 centimeters. The outlines of opposite sharp leaves with serrate edges are cordate-ovate and oblong.

The herb has five-membered, two-lipped small flowers. The lower lip of tiny lilac, whitish or bluish-lilac flowers, gathering in dense paniculate-spike inflorescences, is speckled with purple dots. The length of the inflorescence reaches 4-8, and the diameter is 1.5-2.5 centimeters.

The fruit of catnip is a brown smooth nut, reaching a length of only 1.5 millimeters. The dry fruit splits into four nuts. A thousand nut seeds weigh only 0.53 grams. In the first year, the plant does not bloom. The biennial herb blooms in June. Peduncles begin to fade in August. Nuts ripen in July-September.

Catnip bushes are winter-hardy, light and moisture-loving. They develop well on structural, light-textured soils. The area for growing catnip should be fairly fertile and free of weeds.

The catnip has a scent similar to lemon balm. This fragrant scent attracts cats. The rich herb is an excellent melliferous plant, an excellent spice, an excellent ornamental plant and an excellent medicine. For medicinal purposes, the leaves are cut only from well-grown and strengthened two-year-old bushes.

Chemical composition

Lemon catnip is saturated with essential oil, exuding a lemon aroma. The properties of the plant are determined by the components of the aromatic oil - nepelactone and its anhydride, carvalol, nerol, limonene and others. In addition, the beneficial properties of medicinal herbs are due to tannins and terpenes.

Dosage forms

For herbal medicine, lemon catnip is of great importance. Useful properties are contained in the aboveground organs of the plant: flowers, stems and leaves. The healing herb is harvested when it blooms. The stems are cut at a height of ten centimeters from biennial bushes.

The cut for drying is laid out under outdoor sheds and in rooms with good ventilation. Dried grass has a greenish-gray color. The medicinal raw materials are stored for two years.

Use in official medicine

Medicines from catnip have a diaphoretic, anti-inflammatory, expectorant, tonic effect. They are able to relieve pain and fever, soothe, stop blood, and regulate menstruation.

They are prescribed to increase appetite, improve the function of the gastrointestinal tract. Lemon catnip is also prescribed to stimulate digestion. The medicinal properties of the herb allow the use of preparations from it to eliminate seizures.

When used externally, drugs play the role of a natural antibiotic. They treat furunculosis, tumor formations, abscesses and inflammation on the skin. Medicines from Siberian catnip rinse the larynx for tumors. They are used as prophylactic agents for lead poisoning.

Folk remedies based on catnip

In folk medicine, for the preparation of medicinal broths and infusions, lemon catnip has been used since ancient times. Its use is justified when it is necessary to increase the defenses of the immune system, stimulate appetite, and have a beneficial effect on most systems of the human body.

Folk remedies from it are useful for people burdened with anemia, gynecological diseases, coughs, and liver ailments. They are recommended for patients suffering from intestinal atony, hysteria, helminthic infestation and headaches.

Catnip formulations, which have a powerful calming effect, are excellent at fighting insomnia. Catnip as part of medicinal preparations is used to treat bronchitis. Infusions soothe coughs.

Decoctions of this herb are recommended for the treatment of anemia, exhaustion. They stimulate appetite. They are drunk by those whose stomach is affected by catarrh, who does not have a convulsive cough, shortness of breath is observed against the background of shortness of breath. Infusions relieve diseases that burden women, liver ailments. After taking them, spasms disappear, nervous disorders disappear. Outwardly, the affected skin is treated with grass.

Essential oil of cat grass has a strong antimicrobial activity and fungicidal effect, therefore it is used in the fight against mold fungi. Catnip perfectly normalizes blood pressure, neutralizes excess sugars (its benefits are obvious for people suffering from diabetes). Thanks to the urolic acid in its composition, it is possible to balance salt metabolism.

Contraindications

Lemon catnip has many unique medicinal properties. Contraindications for its use are due to pregnancy, breastfeeding and individual intolerance. In all other cases, catnip contributes to the successful treatment of certain ailments.

Catnip - effects on animals

Catnip is good for animals. Cats burn with unbridled passion for this medicinal plant. They rub against his bushes, passionately sniff their aroma, pluck leaves from the stems and chew them. Field balm makes cats playful and agile. Their mood changes under the influence of weed.

They, falling into obvious ecstasy, roll on the ground. Animals cannot resist the temptation to return to the place where lemon catnip grows in order to get another dose. The plant has an equal effect on cats and seals.

Individuals prone to mild excitability and aggression find calm and poise. They endure stressful situations more patiently, stop showing signs of aggression and fear.

Phlegmatic animals that have been in contact with the catnip acquire mobility, playfulness, and sociability. Weed helps them to cope more easily with a trip in a car, an appointment with a veterinarian, or moving to a new place of residence.

The essential oil exuded by the plant is not just attracting domestic cats. Its aroma is liked by cougars, lions, leopards and other felines. Ancient hunters caught lynxes, luring them with fragrant catnip.

Cattle in the gardens

Catnip is classified as an ornamental gardening plant. Landscape designers and amateur gardeners appreciate it for the abundance of inflorescences of blue, blue and purple colors that sway over the bushes throughout the summer. The catnip is included in the composition of flower beds and alpine slides.

Cooking Catman

Dry and dried leaves and shoots are used when salting herring. They are used as a flavoring agent for sweet and spicy sauces. They are flavored with main courses, drinks, cheeses and desserts. They are indispensable for salting and pickling. They are used to flavor salads and snacks.

Lemon catnip is used for brewing teas. Its foliage is added to teas without interruption. By using an essential oil that exudes a lemon scent, they add a special aroma and taste to all kinds of alcoholic and tonic drinks, confectionery products and baked goods.