African basil

Ocimum gratissimum, clove basil, African basil or scent leaf, is an aromatic perennial subshrub in the mint family Lamiaceae growing 1 to 3 meters tall on square woody-based stems. The opposite leaves are ovate-lanceolate, 5 to 15 centimeters long, with serrate margins, soft pubescence on both surfaces and a strong clove-like aroma derived chiefly from eugenol in the essential oil. Small two-lipped greenish-white to pale yellow flowers are borne in slender terminal racemose panicles up to 20 centimeters long, followed by tiny dark nutlets. The species is native across tropical Africa, Madagascar, southern Asia and the Bismarck Archipelago and has naturalized widely through Polynesia, Hawaii, Mexico, Panama, the West Indies, Brazil and Bolivia. The leaves are prized as a culinary herb across West Africa (the Nigerian "scent leaves" of pepper soup) and contain polyphenols (gallic and rosmarinic acids), flavonoids (quercetin, rutin) and an eugenol-rich essential oil with documented antibacterial and anti-leishmanial activity.