Everything about Basil totally explained
Basil (
Ocimum basilicum) (or /ˈbæzəl/), of the
Family Lamiaceae. Basil is a tender low-growing
herb that's grown as a
perennial in warm, tropical climates. Basil is originally native to
India and other tropical regions of
Asia, having been cultivated there for more than 5,000 years. There are many varieties of basil, that which is used in Italian food is typically called
sweet basil, as opposed to
Thai basil or
holy basil, which are used in Asia. It is prominently featured in
Italian cuisine, and also plays a major role in the
Southeast Asian cuisines of
Thai,
Vietnamese and
Laotian. It grows to between tall, with opposite, light green, silky
leaves long and broad. The flowers are quite big, white in color and arranged in a terminal
spike. Unusual among
Lamiaceae, the four
stamens and the
pistil are not pushed under the upper lip of the
corolla, but lay over the inferior. After
entomophilous pollination, the corolla falls off and four round
achenes develop inside the bilabiate
calyx. The plant tastes somewhat like
anise, with a strong, pungent, sweet smell. Basil is very sensitive to cold, with best growth in hot, dry conditions. While most common varieties are treated as
annuals, some are
perennial, including
African Blue and Holy Thai basil.
The word
basil comes from the
Greek βασιλεύς (
basileus), meaning "king", as it's believed to have grown above the spot where
St. Constantine and
Helen discovered the
Holy Cross. The
Oxford English Dictionary quotes speculations that basil may have been used in "some royal unguent, bath, or medicine". Basil is still considered the "king of herbs" by many cookery authors. An alternative etymology has "basil" coming from the
Latin word
basilicus, meaning
dragon and being the root for
basilisk, but this likely was a linguistic reworking of the word as brought from
Greece.
Culinary use
Basil is most commonly recommended to be used fresh; in cooked recipes it's generally added at the last moment, as cooking quickly destroys the flavour. The fresh herb can be kept for a short time in plastic bags in the refrigerator, or for a longer period in the freezer, after being
blanched quickly in boiling water. The dried herb also loses most of its flavour, and what little flavour remains tastes very different, with a weak
coumarin flavour, like
hay.
Basil is one of the main ingredients in
pesto—a green Italian oil-and-herb sauce from the city of
Genoa, its other two main ingredients being olive oil and pine nuts. The most commonly used Mediterranean basil
cultivars are "Genovese", "Purple Ruffles", "Mammoth", "Cinnamon", "Lemon", "Globe", and "
African Blue".
Chinese also use fresh or dried basils in soups and other foods. In
Taiwan, people add fresh basil leaves into thick soups (羹湯; gēngtāng). They also eat
fried chicken with deep-fried basil leaves.
Basil is sometimes used with fresh fruit and in fruit jams and sauces—in particular with strawberries, but also raspberries or dark-colored plums. Arguably the flat-leaf basil used in Vietnamese cooking, which has a slightly different flavour, is more suitable for use with fruit.
Basil seeds
When soaked in water the seeds of several basil varieties become gelatinous, and are used in Asian drinks and desserts such as
falooda or
sherbet. Such seeds are known variously as
sabja,
subja,
takmaria,
tukmaria,
falooda, or
hột é. They are used for their medicinal properties in
Ayurveda, the traditional medicinal system of
India.
Other basils
» See
List of basil cultivars
Several other basils, including some other
Ocimum species, are grown in many regions of
Asia. Most of the Asian basils have a clove-like flavour that's generally stronger than the Mediterranean basils. The most notable is the
holy basil or
tulsi (
Tamil: கி௫ஷ்ண துளசி), a revered home-grown plant in
India. In
China, the local cultivar is called 九層塔 (
jiǔ-kéng-tǎ; literally "nine-level
pagoda"), while the imported varieties are specifically called 羅勒 (
luó-lè) or 巴西里 (
bā-xī-lǐ), although [巴西里] often refers to another different kind plant--
parsley.
Lemon basil has a strong lemony smell and flavour very different from those of other varieties because it contains a chemical called
citral. It is widely used in Indonesia, where it's called
kemangi and served raw, together with raw cabbage, green beans, and cucumber, as an accompaniment to fried fish or duck. Its flowers, broken up, are a zesty salad condiment.
Chemical components
The various basils have such different scents because the herb has a number of different
essential oils which come together in different proportions for various breeds. The strong
clove scent of sweet basil comes from
eugenol, the same chemical as actual cloves. The citrus scent of lemon basil and lime basil is because they've a higher portion of
citral which causes this effect in several plants, including
lemon mint, and
limonene, which gives actual lemon peel its scent.
African blue basil has a strong
camphor smell because it has camphor and
camphene in higher proportions. Licorice Basil contains
anethole, the same chemical that makes
anise smell like
licorice, and in fact is sometimes called Anise Basil.
Other chemicals helping produce the distinctive scents of many basils, depending on their proportion in each specific breed, including:
