Introduction
Nowadays on Ecuador the catnip's technology have not been developed as much as on other countries like USA. The present study was focused on designing a process for manufacturing cats' toys. The raw material used for this purpose were leaves and buds from Nepeta Cataria.
Catnip is natural product which proceeds from Nepeta Cataria, that's a plant member of the same family as mint.
This product have stimulant effects on cats and even on other felines. The reactions produced by the catnip can be:
The cats' susceptibility is gene dependent and hereditary. Generally speaking the compound responsible of this susceptibility is nepetalactone because normally it is in the cats' pheromones.
The present study was developed at the Industrial Process Laboratory of the Science's Faculty in the Polytechnic School Of Chimborazo, Riobamba, Ecuador
Methodology
The unit operations implied in the process in order to ensure the final product's quality were:
Selection: The purpose of this operation was to choose only the leaves and buds in good condition from the Nepeta Cataria's plants.
Drying: The purpose of this operation was to ensure the microbiological, physical and chemical stability of our product using a tray dryer powered by LGP which decreases the raw material's moisture until to constant weight . The average drying time was 2,30 hours. The raw material's moisture was 77,32% .
Grinding: The purpose of this operation was to prepare the product for the following step using an attrition mill especially designed to treat this kind of material.
Packing. Is the final process' final step and consist in putting together 8g of catnip with 20g of cotton inside of cloth bags. The final product is toy which your cat is going to love.
