Ocimum gratissimum

• Botanical Name : Ocimum gratissimum L.
• Common Name : Aavchi Baavchi, Ram Tulsi, Wild Basil, African Basil, Clove Basil
• Plant Family : Lamiaceae (Labiatae)

• According to the Rules of ICBN the names of the families should end in -aceae. Thus the new name for the family Labiatae became Lamiaceae. However, the name Labiatae is also exempted and conserved under 'Nomina Conservanda' because of their constant use for a long time.

• Plant Form : Shrub
• Occurrence (Sectors) : 1, 5, 10, 17, 29, 30
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Gujarat Forestry Research Foundation, Indroda Park, Sarita Udyan, Van Chetana Kendra, Basan, Aranya Van

About Ocimum gratissimum Plant :

• Habit : Tall, perennial shrub, slender, much branched, woody below with stems and branches quadrangular, pubescent in younger parts and glabrous in older.
• Leaves : Petiolate, elliptic-lanceolate, acute or slightly acuminate at apex, tapering at base, distinctly serrate along margins, pubescent at length almost glabrous, except hairiness on nerves, puncate below, petiolate, petioles slender, slightly pubescent.
• Inflorescence : Verticil laster.
• Flowers :
  • Greenish-yellow, in simple or branched rather short racemes, floral axis quadrangular, densely hairy.
  • Style bifid, upper calyx purple, rest of the corolla and stamens white, anthers yellow.
• Fruit : Nutlets subglobose, rugose, brown, smooth with a glandular depression, not mucilaginous when wetted.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : July - October
• Significance :
  • The plant is considered digestive, tonic, stimulant, demulcent, diuretic, antiemetic, antiseptic and styptic.
  • It is used in cough mixtures in combination with other expectorant.
  • The leaf juice is given in stomachache.
  • The seeds of the plant are sometimes eaten. They are given in headache, neuralgia and dysentery. An infusion of the seeds is used in urinary disorders.