What you have on your hands is about 900 mL of catnip-smelling water, which contains a very small amount of nepetalactone. Catnip contains about 0.3% of this volatile oil by weight, meaning the 1 lb you started out with (454 g) can yield at most 1.4 g of product.



To get that out, we're going to do an organic extraction. Nepetalactone is a non-polar molecule and is much more soluble in an organic solvent than in water. Toluene is convenient because you can get it at the hardware store, and it's not especially bad for you. You could also substitute something like diethyl ether, if you can get your hands on it.



First, add a large quantity of salt (about 1 cup) to the water and shake it up real well to dissolve it. This increases the ionic strength of the water, giving the nepetalactone even more reason to dissolve in the toluene. Add 1 shot glass worth of toluene to the solution. Close the nalgene bottle tightly and shake it really well for at least a minute. Allow it to stand for at least 15 minutes, until you can see two distinct phases in the liquid. It's not clear from this picture, but you should see a thin layer of toluene floating on top of the water. It may be a little murky but that's OK.



A side note, don't let this mixture stand for *too* long, because the toluene will start to degrade the plastic and fog the nalgene bottle. Not an issue if you're using a glass container.

