Sorrel & Salt
Sign In
Back to Compendium NewCaution
Botanical Name
Ocimum basilicum

Basil

Details

Basil, also called great basil or sweet basil, is a tender herb of the mint family, native to tropical and subtropical parts of Asia and Australasia, ranging from Sri Lanka and India across South-East Asia to northern Australia; in cooler countries it is raised each year as an annual. Its glossy oval leaves grow in opposite pairs on square stems, small white flowers crown the plant in a spike, and a bruised leaf gives off a scent of cloves. The name is usually traced to a Greek word for a king. In India it is sacred to Krishna and Vishnu and kept in Hindu homes, and the Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian and Romanian Orthodox churches use it with holy water. Old European writers quarrelled over it: Parkinson passed on the notion that basil, roughly bruised, would breed scorpions, and Culpeper, reasoning it out for himself, assigned it to Mars and Scorpio. The story of Isabella and her pot of basil kept the plant remembered in poetry. In magic it is first a herb of love and of peace between partners; Cunningham also has it carried in the pocket for wealth, put in a shop's till to draw customers, strewn on floors against evil and added to purification baths, and Kynes records it hung in medieval homes against misfortune and given as a love token in Tudor England.

Caution

AHPA safety class 2b: avoid in pregnancy unless a qualified healthcare practitioner is supervising. The caution concerns the larger doses taken as medicine, not the amounts used in cooking. Safety while nursing has not been established, and Kynes advises avoiding therapeutic doses both in pregnancy and while breastfeeding. One allergic reaction to basil is on record. Basil may lower blood sugar, so people with diabetes should monitor theirs and consult a practitioner first. Cunningham codes it, in more than ordinary food amounts, as not to be taken internally in pregnancy or while nursing, and not for internal use by infants and toddlers.

References

#1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8

Correspondences

Elements
Fire
Celestial Bodies
Mars, Pluto, Venus
Zodiac Signs
Aries, Leo, Scorpio
Colours
None recorded
Deities
Vishnu (Hindu), Erzulie (Haitian Vodou), Krishna (Hindu), Lakshmi (Hindu), Venus (Roman)

Folk Names

  • Albahaca
  • American Dittany
  • Bacia-Nicola
  • Balanoi
  • Common Basil
  • Feslien
  • French Basil
  • Great Basil
  • Njilika
  • Our Herb
  • St. Joseph's Wort
  • Sweet Basil
  • Witches Herb

Categories

  • Courage
  • Divination
  • Healing
  • Love
  • Peace
  • Prosperity
  • Protection
  • Psychic Work
  • Success
  • Wealth

Substitutes

No substitutes recorded.

Forms

Leaf

References

#9#10#11#12

Oil

Kynes lists basil essential oil among the forms on sale. Studies of the oil have found it insecticidal and repellent to insects, with possible toxicity to mosquitoes, and active against many kinds of bacteria and fungi.

Caution

Estragole, one of the alkenylbenzenes, makes up 70–85% of the essential oil, with safrole as a minor constituent. Rats given the oil by mouth every day for two weeks showed erosion of the stomach lining at 2 g/kg a day and above, and swollen liver cells above 1.5 g/kg.

References

#13#14#15

Powder

Cunningham gives powdered basil a charm for faithfulness: dust it over a sleeping partner's body, above all over the heart, so that fidelity blesses the relationship.

References

#16

Categories

  • Fidelity

Seed

Kynes lists the dried seeds among the forms of basil on sale. Parkinson, as Northcote quotes him, held that the herb's chief physical virtue was to bring a cheerful and merry heart, and for that the seed was mostly taken in powder.

References

#17#18

References

Notes

  1. Culpeper, Complete Herbal, under "Garden Bazil, or Sweet Bazil".
  2. Cunningham, Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical, under "Basil"; p. 266.
  3. Gardner and McGuffin, American Herbal Products Association's, pp. 599–600; p. xxii.
  4. Grieve, "Basil, Sweet."
  5. Kynes, Herbal Remedies for Beginners, pp. 206–207.
  6. Kynes, Witches' Encyclopedia of Magical, under "Basil".
  7. Northcote, Book of Herbs, pp. 11–13.
  8. Wikipedia, under "Basil."
  9. Cunningham, Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical, under "Basil".
  10. Gardner and McGuffin, American Herbal Products Association's, p. 599.
  11. Kynes, Herbal Remedies for Beginners, p. 207.
  12. Kynes, Witches' Encyclopedia of Magical, under "Basil".
  13. Gardner and McGuffin, American Herbal Products Association's, pp. 599–600.
  14. Kynes, Witches' Encyclopedia of Magical, under "Basil".
  15. Wikipedia, under "Basil."
  16. Cunningham, Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical, under "Basil".
  17. Kynes, Witches' Encyclopedia of Magical, under "Basil".
  18. Northcote, Book of Herbs, pp. 11–12.

Bibliography

  • Culpeper, Nicholas. The Complete Herbal. London: Thomas Kelly, 1850. Project Gutenberg ebook 49513. Last modified October 24, 2024. Accessed October 11, 2026. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49513. Open the Source1
  • Cunningham, Scott. Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. 2nd ed. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2012. (EPUB.)2916
  • Gardner, Zoë, and Michael McGuffin, eds. American Herbal Products Association's Botanical Safety Handbook. 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2013. (PDF.)31013
  • Grieve, M. "Basil, Sweet." A Modern Herbal. Accessed October 11, 2026. https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/b/basswe18.html. Open the Source4
  • Kynes, Sandra. Herbal Remedies for Beginners: Natural Ways to Treat Ailments. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2020. (EPUB.)511
  • Kynes, Sandra. The Witches' Encyclopedia of Magical Plants: History, Folklore, Correspondences, and Spells. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2024. (EPUB.)6121417
  • Northcote, Lady Rosalind. The Book of Herbs. Handbooks of Practical Gardening 12. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1903.718
  • Wikipedia, under "Basil." Accessed October 11, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Basil&oldid=1375753314. Open the Source815
Basil (Ocimum basilicum) | Sorrel & Salt