Basil

Medicinal Uses:

• In Europe, sweet basil is used as a potherb for seasoning of foods similar to thyme and sage.

• It is used as a diaphoretic, carminative and stimulant; given in intestinal fluxes, gonorrhoea, catarrh, and to relieve pains after parturition, during cold stage of intermittent fever and to alleviate vomiting.

• Juice of the leaves is dropped into the ear to relieve earache.

• Seeds are mucilaginous, demulcent, aphrodisiac, and diuretic.

• Seeds are soaked in water to form a mucilaginous jelly that with added sugar serves as an excellent drink in catarrh, chronic diarrhoea, dysentery, gonorrhoea, nephritis, cystitis and internal piles.

• In Unani medicine, seeds are considered de-obstruent, carminative, and stimulant, and are valued much when taken whole due to their mucilaginous properties; when crushed they are said to be astringent.