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Ocimum sanctum L., Lamiaceae, tulasi, or the sacred basil, is religiously grown in homes throughout the country. It also runs wild.
This species has an important place in all Hindu religious practices.
It is also regarded high as a medicinal plant used from treating common colds to controlling head lice. It is antibacterial, insecticidal and a mosquito repellent. The leaves are stimulant, diaphoretic, antiperiodic, and expectorant, used in catarrh and bronchitis, earache, ringworm, eczema and other cutaneous diseases. The leaf infusion is stomachic. Root decoction is a diaphoretic in malarial fevers. The seeds are mucilagenous and demulcent, used in gastric and genito-urinary disorders.
The species contains several essential oils, with a faint resemblance to clove oil.
The common variety has all parts green (Shri tulasi, Ocimum sanctum1). Another variety, called Krishna tulasi (black tulasi, Ocimum sanctum2) has deep reddish stems, leaf stalks, inflorescence stalks and flowers, due to the pigment anthocyanin. This variety is uncommon and is regarded as more sacred. The difference between the two varieties is certainly gene based, a case of infraspecific genetic variation, but the degree of expression of the pigment is influenced by soil moisture. Dry soil conditions enhance the expression of the pigment. In the new growth of well-watered plants, the pigment develops sparingly, sometimes not at all.