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Ocimum
basilicum L.
Synonym
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:
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Ocimum basilicum var. album (L.) Benth.
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Family
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Lamiaceae
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Local name
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English - Sweet
basil, Common basil
Malayalam -
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Flowering and fruiting period
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Throughout the year
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Distribution
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Pleotropic
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Distribution in Kerala
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All Districts
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Habitat
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Dry deciduous
forests, also in the plains; often cultivated
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Uses
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Basil is used for stomach spasms, loss of appetite, intestinal gas,
kidney conditions, fluid retention, head colds, warts and worm infections. It
is also used to treat snake and insect bites.
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Key botanical characters:
Erect
annual herbs up to 60 cm tall; stem obtusely 4-angular. Leaves
ovate-elliptic, base cuneate, margin entire to distantly crenulate, apex
acute, puberulous above and pubescent with sessile oil galnds beneath.
Racemes to 14 cm long; bracts oblanceolate, ciliate; pedicel to 2 mm long. Calyx
to 6 mm long; tube 3 mm long, sparsely strigose; upper lip broadly ovate;
lower lip hairy within. Corolla cream, 7-10 mm long; tube 4 mm long, inflated
below; lobes 5. Stamens 4; filaments of posterior pair with a transverse
process of tufted hairs. Nutlets ellipsoid, black, mucilaginous when wet. |
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