Abstract
Nepeta cataria L. is a common herbal medicine and it has been applied to the treatment of various diseases in China, especially common cold in children. In this study, we reported and characterized the complete chloroplast genome sequence of N. cataria L. The chloroplast genome was determined to be 152,339 bp in length. It contained large single-copy (LSC) and small single-copy (SSC) regions of 95,821 bp and 23,460 bp, respectively, which were separated by a pair of 16,529 bp inverted repeat (IR) regions. The genome is predicted to contain 132 genes, including 87 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. The overall GC content of the genome is 37.85%. The complete plastome sequence of N. cataria L. will provide a useful resource for the conservation genetics of this species as well as for the phylogenetic studies for Schizonepeta tenuifolia Briq. A phylogenetic tree reconstructed by 19 chloroplast genomes reveals that N. cataria L. is mostly related to Callicarpa nudiflora, but forms an independent evolutionary branch.