To isolate preparative quantities of cis—cis nepetalactone, all green from a flowerless N. mussinii 'Snowflake' plant (Burncoose Nurseries) was cut off a few centimeters above the soil (approximately 40 g wet weight). The tissue was thoroughly blended in a kitchen blender together with 160 ml of water. Water was added up to approximately 500 ml, and organic compounds were extracted with 5 × 100 ml of dichloromethane. The combined fractions were filtered over paper and washed with 200 ml of brine in a separation funnel. The organic phase was dried by adding anhydrous sodium sulfate, and the solvent was evaporated under reduced pressure. The solid residue was taken up in 10 ml of hexane and separated by silica flash chromatography on a 3 × 25 cm column packed in hexane. Compounds were eluted with a gradient from 10–20% ethyl acetate in hexane in steps of 2% (200 ml each). Elution fractions were checked for diastereomeric purity by GC-MS (see above), and pure fractions were pooled and evaporated, yielding 120 mg of yellow oil. The compound was identified as cis—cis nepetalactone in comparison with published 1H NMR spectra (21).