Catnip leaf & flower, c/s

Background:

The genus name Nepeta is possibly related to the Italian town of Nepi. It was cultivated in classical Greek and Roman times for human use, and for charming their cats. By 1265 it was common in herb gardens throughout England where it was dried and also used fresh as a nutritional seasoning herb. Prior to the importation of camilla sinensis, true teas, from China, catnip was the familiar and popular beverage of the daily, twice, thrice or, even, hourly tea-time ritual of pre-Elizabethan England.

In Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter's charming children’s tale, Peter’s mother gives him a tea of fennel, catnip and chamomile, to soothe his stomachache.

Catnip is combined with rose petals in love sachets.

Introduced to the Americas, catnip became an important commercial crop in the United States by
1796.
Fresh leaves were chewed to relieve headache. Catnip was combined with damiana leaf and the smoke inhaled to produce euphoria with visual hallucinations (partially due to the nepetalactone content of Nepata cataria.) Catnip, in combination with Eugenia caryophyllata, and Sassafras albidum, was used as poultice for aching teeth by those in America's Ozark Mountain region. Catnip alone was sometimes smoked to relieve respiratory ailments

Catnip leaf can be used to make a natural, light yellow dye.

Applications:

Catnip has long been used medicinally as tea, tincture, infusion and poultice. Used to treat headache, stomach ache, colic and sleeplessness in children. Also used in treating cancer, mental illness, nervousness, nightmare, scurvy and tuberculosis. Said to treat flatulence, hiccups, whooping cough, cold and flu, reduces eruptions in measles and chicken pox (reduces occurence and size of eruptions.)
Poultices were used for hives, and to minimize the breast pain of nursing mothers, and to reduce localized, related swelling. It is used as an anodyne, and as a mild sedative. A tincture can be used topically as a friction-rub for reducing pain in aching joints.