African basil

Watery, cramping diarrhea in a cold, damp, kapha-type patient who also has a stuffy head cold, taken as a hot leaf tea

Ringworm or athlete's foot where an aromatic, warming leaf wash or diluted oil is wanted instead of a pharmaceutical antifungal

Sluggish digestion with gas and a heavy head, in someone who eats the leaf as a pot herb and benefits from it as medicine

Overview. African basil is a woody, aromatic shrub to two meters with large toothed leaves that smell of clove and thyme, native to tropical Africa and the Indian subcontinent and grown throughout the tropics as a pot herb and dooryard medicine. The leaves are used fresh or dried, and the essential oil externally. In India it is one of the wild tulsi types, rām tulsī or vana tulasī, a heating, kapha-reducing plant for coughs, fevers and digestive upset; in West Africa, as scent leaf, it is a leading household remedy for diarrhea, fever, respiratory infection and skin disease.

Overview. Ocimum gratissimum is a robust aromatic shrub of the mint family growing to two meters, with large toothed leaves and long spikes of small greenish flowers, native to tropical Africa and India and now naturalized through the wet tropics; it grows wild at forest edges, along roads and in village hedges across peninsular India and the northeast.

Clinical Notes. Think of African basil as a stronger, more clove-like tulsi with a marked antimicrobial edge. Its warming, drying, pungent quality suits kapha and vata conditions: the wet cough and blocked head of a cold, sluggish gassy digestion, watery diarrhea with cramping, and the chilled fever of early infection, where a hot infusion provokes a useful sweat.

Clinical Notes. The Ayurvedic view places Vana tulasi with the kapha-clearing aromatics. Leaf juice with honey for kasa and pratishyaya; a decoction with Shunthi, Maricha and Pippali for jvara with chills and a heavy chest; crushed leaves on bites, stings and ringworm; leaf oil warmed and dropped into the ear for karnashula; the seeds soaked in water as a soothing, mucilaginous drink for urinary burning in the way that sabja seeds are used.