Photo/Illutration A cat frolics with silver vine leaves. (Provided by Iwate University)

MORIOKA—Is it safe to get your cats drunk on silver vine? Researchers from Iwate University here say “yes.”

Silver vine, like catnip, has long been known for its intoxicating effect on cats. While many pet owners love to give their feline friends silver vine treats and watch them play, some worry that the plant may be toxic or addictive for cats, like alcohol is for humans.

A group of researchers from Iwate University, Nagoya University and the University of Liverpool decided to tackle those concerns head on by examining the long-term impact of silver vine on domestic cats.

Their joint research tested three main questions: Is silver vine addictive, stressful, or toxic to cats?

The results, published on Sept. 28 in the digital edition of iScience, a U.S. scientific journal, conclude that silver vine is not at all harmful.

“As a feline researcher, I have often been asked questions about the safety of giving silver vine to cats,” said one team member, Masao Miyazaki, a professor of biochemistry at Iwate University.

“Our latest findings have shown that silver vine is highly safe for cats and is a positive experience for them.”

In the study on addictiveness, cats offered silver vine extract over a period of four hours were found to spend only about 10 minutes in contact with the extract, and showed less and less interest in it over time.

The researchers, therefore, concluded silver vine ingredients are not addictive since the cats would have remained in continual contact with the substance if it had been.

To study whether silver vine is stress-inducing for cats, the scholars examined cats’ blood samples for substances that increase under the presence of stress stimuli. The researchers said that the concentrations of the substances in the blood samples from cats exposed to silver vine extract did not deviate significantly from normal levels.

To study whether silver vine is toxic or damaging to cats’ livers and kidneys, the scientists conducted blood tests on cats that had been exposed to silver vine’s active ingredients for up to three years. Signs of liver and renal malfunctions were found to be within normal ranges.

Additionally, two members of the study, Miyazaki and Reiko Uenoyama, a graduate student at Iwate University, analyzed how silver vine’s active ingredients change in quantity and quality when leaves of the plant are dried.

They discovered that cats respond to the extract of dried silver vine leaves for a longer period than they do to the extract of fresh leaves.

These findings led the researchers to develop a new method for concentrating the plant’s active ingredients.

A Tokyo-based company that markets health products has used this method to develop a new spray for cats from dried silver vine leaves, which it started selling in late September.

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