As a component of khat, cathine is administered by chewing khat leaves. As a dietary supplement, cathine hydrochloride is administered orally, 20-50 mg once daily after breakfast for up to 4 wk. It is also available as oral drops.

For the NE release assay, whole rat brain minus cerebellum and caudate was homogenized in ice-cold 10% sucrose containing 1 uM reserpine. 50 nM GBR12935 and 100 nM citalopram were added to block [3H]MPP uptake into DA and 5-HT nerves. After 12 strokes with a Potter-Elvehjem homogenizer, brain homogenates were centrifuged at 1,000g for 10 min at 0–4°C, and the supernatants were retained on ice. Synaptosomal preparations were incubated to steady state with 5 nM [3H]MPP in a Krebs-phosphate buffer. After incubation to steady state, 850uL of synaptosomes preloaded with 3H ligand was added to test tubes that contained 150 uL of test drug. The release reaction was terminated by dilution with 4 ml of wash buffer followed by rapid vacuum filtration over GF/B filters. Retained tritium was counted by a liquid scintillation counter. L-Norpseudoephedrine was able to evoke NE release with EC50 of 15 nM.