''Ocimum tenuiflorum'', commonly known as holy basil, ''tulsi'' or ''tulasi'', is an aromatic

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also widel ...

plant in the family

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory ...

. It is native to the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, In ...

and widespread as a cultivated plant throughout the

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also refer ...

. ''Tulsi'' is cultivated for religious and

traditional medicine Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the ...

purposes, and also for its

essential oil An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the o ...

. It is widely used as a

herbal tea Herbal teas, also known as herbal infusions and less commonly called tisanes (UK and US , US also ), are beverages made from the infusion or decoction of herbs, spices, or other plant material in hot water. Oftentimes herb tea, or the plain term ...

, commonly used in

Ayurveda Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population rep ...

, and has a place within the

Vaishnava Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

tradition of

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

, in which devotees perform worship involving holy basil plants or leaves. The variety of ''Ocimum tenuiflorum'' used in

Thai cuisine Thai cuisine ( th, อาหารไทย, , ) is the national cuisine of Thailand. Thai cooking places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components and a spicy edge. Australian chef David Thompson, an expert on Thai ...

is referred to as Thai holy basil ( th, กะเพรา ''kaphrao'') and is the key herb in

phat kaphrao ''Phat kaphrao'' ( th, ผัดกะเพรา, ; ), also spelled ''pad krapow'', ''kaprao'', is one of the most popular Thai à la carte dishes. History By some accounts, ''phat kaphrao'' was included as part of Prime Minister Field Mar ...

, a stir-fry dish; it is not the same as

Thai basil Thai basil ( th, โหระพา, , ISO: hōraphā, ; km, ជីរនាងវង, ''chi neang vorng''; vi, húng quế) called ''káu-chàn-thah'' () in Taiwan, is a type of basil native to Southeast Asia that has been cultivated to p ...

, which is a variety of ''

Ocimum basilicum Basil (, ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' , also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" refers to the variety also k ...

''. In Cambodia, it is known as ''mreah-prov'' ( km, ម្រះព្រៅ).

Morphology

Holy basil is an erect, many-branched subshrub, tall with hairy stems. Leaves are green or purple; they are simple, petioled, with an

ovate Ovate may refer to: * Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe *Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd *Vates In modern English, the nouns vates () and ova ...

blade up to long, which usually has a slightly toothed margin; they are strongly scented and have a

decussate Decussation is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing (due to the shape of the Roman numeral for ten, an uppercase 'X' (), ). In Latin anatomical terms, the form is used, e.g. . Similarly, the anatomical term chiasma is named af ...

phyllotaxy In botany, phyllotaxis () or phyllotaxy is the arrangement of leaves on a plant stem. Phyllotactic spirals form a distinctive class of patterns in nature. Leaf arrangement The basic arrangements of leaves on a stem are opposite and alterna ...

. The purplish flowers are placed in close whorls on elongated

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

s. The three main

morphotype In biology, polymorphism is the occurrence of two or more clearly different morphs or forms, also referred to as alternative '' phenotypes'', in the population of a species. To be classified as such, morphs must occupy the same habitat at the ...

s cultivated in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

and

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

are ''Ram tulsi'' (the most common type, with broad bright green leaves that are slightly sweet), the less common purplish green-leaved (

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is on ...

or ''Shyam tulsi'') and the common wild ''vana tulsi'' (e.g., ''Ocimum gratissimum'').

Origin and distribution

DNA barcode DNA barcoding is a method of species identification using a short section of DNA from a specific gene or genes. The premise of DNA barcoding is that by comparison with a reference library of such DNA sections (also called " sequences"), an indi ...

s of various

biogeographical Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

isolates of tulsi from the Indian subcontinent are now available. In a large-scale phylogeographical study of this species conducted using

chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells. The photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight, converts it, and stores it i ...

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ...

sequences, a group of researchers from

Central University of Punjab Central University of Punjab is a Central University located in Ghudda village of Bathinda, Punjab, India. It has been established through an Act of Parliament: "The Central Universities Act, 2009" by Govt. of India. The territorial jurisdi ...

Bathinda Bathinda is a city and municipal corporation in Punjab, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of Bathinda District. It is located in northwestern India in the Malwa Region, west of the capital city of Chandigarh and is the fifth l ...

, have found that this plant originates from North-Central India. This basil has now escaped from cultivation and has

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

into a

cosmopolitan distribution In biogeography, cosmopolitan distribution is the term for the range of a taxon that extends across all or most of the world in appropriate habitats. Such a taxon, usually a species, is said to exhibit cosmopolitanism or cosmopolitism. The extr ...

Chemical composition

Some of the

phytochemical Phytochemicals are chemical compounds produced by plants, generally to help them resist fungi, bacteria and plant virus infections, and also consumption by insects and other animals. The name comes . Some phytochemicals have been used as poison ...

constituents of ''tulsi'' are

oleanolic acid Oleanolic acid or oleanic acid is a naturally occurring pentacyclic triterpenoid related to betulinic acid. It is widely distributed in food and plants where it exists as a free acid or as an aglycone of triterpenoid saponins. Natural occurren ...

ursolic acid Ursolic acid (sometimes referred to as urson, prunol, malol, or 3β-hydroxyurs-12-en-28-oic acid), is a pentacyclic triterpenoid identified in the epicuticular waxes of apples as early as 1920 and widely found in the peels of fruits, as well ...

rosmarinic acid Rosmarinic acid, named after rosemary (''Salvia rosmarinus'' Linn.), is a polyphenol constituent of many culinary herbs, including rosemary (''Salvia rosmarinus'' L.), perilla (''Perilla frutescens'' L.), sage (''Salvia officinalis'' L.), mint ...

eugenol Eugenol is an allyl chain-substituted guaiacol, a member of the allylbenzene class of chemical compounds. It is a colorless to pale yellow, aromatic oily liquid extracted from certain essential oils especially from clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, bas ...

carvacrol Carvacrol, or cymophenol, C6H3(CH3)(OH)C3H7, is a monoterpenoid phenol. It has a characteristic pungent, warm odor of oregano. Natural occurrence Carvacrol is present in the essential oil of ''Origanum vulgare'' (oregano), oil of thyme, oil obt ...

linalool Linalool () refers to two enantiomers of a naturally occurring terpene alcohol found in many flowers and spice plants. Linalool has multiple commercial applications, the majority of which are based on its pleasant scent (floral, with a touch of ...

, and β-caryophyllene (about 8%). ''Tulsi ''essential oil consists mostly of eugenol (~70%) β-elemene (~11.0%), β-caryophyllene (~8%), and

germacrene Germacrenes are a class of volatile organic hydrocarbons, specifically, sesquiterpenes. Germacrenes are typically produced in a number of plant species for their antimicrobial and insecticidal properties, though they also play a role as insect ph ...

(~2%), with the balance being made up of various trace compounds, mostly

terpenes Terpenes () are a class of natural products consisting of compounds with the formula (C5H8)n for n > 1. Comprising more than 30,000 compounds, these unsaturated hydrocarbons are produced predominantly by plants, particularly conifers. Terpenes ar ...

Genome sequence

The genome of the tulsi plant has been sequenced and reported as a draft, estimated to be 612 mega bases, with results showing genes for biosynthesis of

anthocyanin Anthocyanins (), also called anthocyans, are water-soluble vacuolar pigments that, depending on their pH, may appear red, purple, blue, or black. In 1835, the German pharmacist Ludwig Clamor Marquart gave the name Anthokyan to a chemical com ...

s in ''Shyama Tulsi'',

and

in ''Rama Tulsi''. The predicted proteins and other

annotation An annotation is extra information associated with a particular point in a document or other piece of information. It can be a note that includes a comment or explanation. Annotations are sometimes presented in the margin of book pages. For anno ...

s are available fro
caps.ncbs.res.in/Ote

Uses

''Tulsi'' (Sanskrit: Surasa) has been used in

Ayurvedic Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population repo ...

and Siddha practices for its supposed treatment of diseases.

Insect repellent

For centuries, the dried leaves have been mixed with stored grains to repel insects.

Nematicidal

The essential oil may have nematicidal properties against '' Tylenchulus semipenetrans'', ''

Meloidogyne javanica ''Meloidogyne javanica'' is a species of plant-pathogenic nematodes. It is one of the tropical root-knot nematodes and a major agricultural pest in many countries. It has many hosts. ''Meloidogyne javanica'' reproduces by obligatory mitotic part ...

'', '' Anguina tritici'', and ''

Heterodera cajani ''Heterodera cajani'' (Pigeonpea cyst nematode, Cowpea cyst nematode) is a plant pathogenic nematode affecting pigeonpeas, which is cited as an invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism tha ...

''.

Disinfection

Water

disinfection A disinfectant is a chemical substance or compound used to inactivate or destroy microorganisms on inert surfaces. Disinfection does not necessarily kill all microorganisms, especially resistant bacterial spores; it is less effective than st ...

using ''O. tenuiflorum'' extracts was tested by Bhattacharjee et al 2013 and Sadul et al 2009. Both found an alcoholic extract to be more effective than

aqueous An aqueous solution is a solution in which the solvent is water. It is mostly shown in chemical equations by appending (aq) to the relevant chemical formula. For example, a solution of table salt, or sodium chloride (NaCl), in water would be re ...

leaf juice Juicing is the process of extracting juice from plant tissues such as fruit or vegetables. Overview There are many methods of juicing, from squeezing fruit by hand to wide-scale extraction with industrial equipment. Juicing is generally the ...

. Sundaramurthi et al 2012 finds the result to be safe to drink, and additionally to be antimicrobial. A constituent analysis by Sadul found

alkaloid Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of simila ...

steroid A steroid is a biologically active organic compound with four rings arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes that alter membrane fluidity; and ...

s, and

tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' (from Anglo-Norman ''tanner'' ...

s in the aqueous, and alkaloids and steroids only in the alcoholic extract.

Significance in Hinduism

''Tulsi'' is a sacred plant for

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

s, particularly the

Vaishnavite Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as th ...

sect. It is worshipped as the

avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appear ...

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with '' Maya'' ("Illusion"). A ...

, and may be planted in

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

s of Hindu houses or Hanuman temples. The ritual lighting of lamps each evening during ''Kartik'' includes the worship of the ''tulsi'' plant. Vaishnavas followers of Vishnu are known as "those who bear the'' tulsi'' around the neck". ''

Tulsi Vivah Tulasi Vivaha (, kan, ತುಳಸಿ ಮದುವೆ, translit=Tulasi Maduve, , ), also called Tulasi Kalyanam, is a Hindu festival, in which a ceremonial wedding of the goddess Tulasi (The personification of the holy basil, a form of Lakshm ...

'' is a ceremonial festival performed between

Prabodhini Ekadashi Prabodhini Ekadashi (), also known as Deva Uttana Ekadashi (), is the 11th lunar day ( ''ekadashi'') in the bright fortnight (Shukla Paksha) of the Hindu month of Kartika. It marks the end of the four-month period of Chaturmasya, when the god V ...

(the 11th or 12th lunar day of the bright fortnight of the

Hindu month The Hindu calendar, Panchanga () or Panjika is one of various lunisolar calendars that are traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with further regional variations for social and Hindu religious purposes. They adopt a ...

of Kartik) and

Kartik Purnima Kartika Purnima is a Hindu, Sikh and Jain cultural festival that is celebrated on Purnima (full moon day), the 15th (or 30th) lunar day of the month of Kartika. It falls in November or December of the Gregorian calendar and is also known as ...

(the full moon of the month). Every evening, Bengali Hindus place earthen lamps in front of tulsi plants. During the Kati Bihu festival celebrated in

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

, people light earthen lamps (''

diya Diya may refer to: * ''Diya (film)'', 2018 Tamil- and Telugu-language film * Diya (Islam), Islamic term for monetary compensation for bodily harm or property damage * Diya (lamp), ghee- or oil-based candle often used in South Asian religious ceremo ...

'') at the foot of the household tulsi plants and pray.

Gallery

File:Holy Basil in India.jpg, On

Deccan Plateau The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by th ...

, India File:Tulsi or Tulasi Holy basil.jpg, Leaves and flowers File:Thulasi.jpg, In a home garden File:Tulasi Leaf.jpg, Leaves File:Ocimum tenuiflorum inflorescence closeup.jpg, Inflorescence File:Ocimum tenuiflorum (Tulsi) Flower.jpeg, Flower File:Holy Basil flowers.jpg, Flowers File:ಮನೆ ಅಂಗಳ ತುಳಸಿ ಕಟ್ಟೆ.JPG, Altar with ''tulsi'' plant for daily worship in a courtyard File:Japa mala (prayer beads) of Tulasi wood with 108 beads - 20040101-01.jpg,

Prayer beads Prayer beads are a form of beadwork used to count the repetitions of prayers, chants, or mantras by members of various religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Umbanda, Islam, Sikhism, the Baháʼí Faith, and some Christian denom ...

made from ''tulsi'' wood File:Ocimum tenuiflorum2.jpg, Plant shrub File:Holy Basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum) plant captured at night.jpg, At night

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q960124 Herbs tenuiflorum Plants used in Ayurveda Flora of tropical Asia Plants described in 1753 Indian spices Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus