Basil

Ocimum basilicum, common or sweet basil, is a tender annual herb in the Lamiaceae family native to tropical Asia and Africa and cultivated worldwide for culinary and medicinal use. The plant grows thirty to seventy centimetres tall with erect, square, often pinkish stems that are branched and slightly hairy. The opposite leaves are bright green, ovate to elliptic, three to seven centimetres long, with slightly toothed or entire margins and a glossy, sometimes slightly puckered surface. Crushed leaves release a strong, sweet, clove-like aroma due to volatile oils rich in linalool, eugenol, and methyl chavicol. Small two-lipped white or pale lilac flowers are borne in whorled terminal racemes; each whorl bears six flowers subtended by leafy bracts. After flowering, four small smooth nutlets develop within the persistent calyx. Many cultivated forms differ in leaf colour, shape, and aroma.