Basil for Catnip?

After plucking a few leaves of basil from the garden, I had the smell on my hands when I pet Ninja. He sniffed and sniffed and I thought he might start licking my hands. He seemed to really like it. So I took a leaf and held it up for him. He started getting excited like I had catnip in my hands. He tried to eat it, but I took it away because I didn't know if it might make him sick.

Samurai, on the other hand, blinked and cringed like he would if I put an orange rind in front of him. Of course, Samurai had reacted like that the first time I presented him with catnip, but then he warmed up to it and now loves it when I sprinkle some for them. And Ninja tends to try and eat anything, from food remnants to dirt clods to children's toys.

I looked it up on the internet to see if it was akin to catnip or something that could be potentially poisonous to cats. The only thing I could find was that they were in the same mint family called Lamiaceae.

I wonder how other people's cats react to basil....