Ocimum Gratissimum

Scientific Name: Ocimum Gratissimum

Common Name:  Clove Basil/African Basil 

Family: Labiateae

Names in other languages: English (wild basil,tree basil,East Indian basil,clove basil); French (menthe gabonaise); Indonesian (ruku-ruku rimba); Malay (ruku-ruku hitam); Thai (horapha-chang)

• General Information 

Ocimum gratissimum is an aromatic, perennial herb, 1-3 m tall; stem erect, round-quadrangular, much branched, glabrous or pubescent, woody at the base, often with epidermis peeling in strips.

Features of Ocimum Gratissimum that make it identifiable:  

• The Stem is erect, round-quadrangular, much branched, glabrous or pubescent, woody at the base, often with epidermis peeling in strips.

• The Leaves are opposite; petiole 2-4.5 cm long, slender, pubescent; blade elliptical to ovate

• There are no Flowers

• The fruit consist of 4, dry, 1-seeded nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx (the lower lip closing the mouth of the fruiting calyx)

Uses (non medicinal) 

• used for aromatic purposes

• grown for the essential oil in its leaves and stems

• Eugenol and to a lesser extent thymol extracted from the oil are substitutes for clove oil and thyme oil.

Medicinal Uses:  

• Preparations from the whole plant are used as stomachic and in treating sunstroke, headache and influenza

• The seeds have laxative properties and are prescribed against gonorrhoea (STI) 

• The essential oil is applied against fever, inflammations of the throat, ears or eyes, stomach pain, diarrhoea and skin diseases

• It is being tested as an antibiotic.