Many cooks would find it hard to do without the leaves of basil-spicy when fresh, sweeter when dried. Yet this popular culinary
herb has been alternately praised and excoriated during the course of herbal medical history.
Some ancient herbalists asserted that basil damaged the internal organs and the eyes and caused insanity, coma, and the spontaneous generations of worms, lice and scorpions. Subsequent writers argued that basil did none of these things, but was good both as a condiment and for a variety of medical purposes. These opposing view points were argued in herbal medicine through the centuries.
The first century Roman naturalist Pliny, siding with the defenders, reposted that basil relieves flatulence.
In folklore as in medicine, basil has a reputation for both evil and good. In some lands it was associated with the legendary reptile known as basilisk, whose breath and glance could kill. Peoples in other countries however, cherished it as a protection against witchcraft as a symbol of love.
Habitat: Any well drained fairly rich soil.
Range: Native to the tropical Asia, basil is now cultivated in most temperate North America.
Identification: A bushy annual, 2-3 feet tall with a square stem and numerous
branches, basil has opposite, shiny green to purple, toothed leaves that are elliptical to oval and about 1 inch long. They emit a spicy scent when bruised. Small white or purplish flowers grow in whorls of six at the end of the branches.
Uses: down to the present day, herbalists have recommended tea made from the leaves of the basil plant for nausea, gas pains and
dysentery. Basil’s effectiveness as a carminative (a substance that relieves gas) has been established, and research shows that extracts of the plant inhibit organisms that can cause dysentery. Tea made from Basil and peppercorn is a folk remedy reputed to reduce fever. A popular culinary herb, basil is easy to grow and to dry for storing.