Balanoy
Ocimum basilicum · Sweet basil
- Names in the 1901 book
- Solasi, Tag., Pam.; Bonak, Vis.; Sweet Basil, Eng.
- Names in the 1985 book
- English: Sweet Basil; Tagalog: Balanoy, Albunaka; Bicol: Samilig, Samirig; Cebu Visayan: Kalu-ui, Bonak, Kamangi; Ilocano: Biday
- Used for
- Cough and asthmaMouth, teeth and throatStomach and digestionSkinJoint pain, sprains and swelling
- Colours
- flowerwhite, purple
- Native range
- Tropical Asia and Africa
- In the Philippines, per the book
- All species are very common and universally known.
- Family
- Lamiaceae, filed in the book under Labiatæ
- Printed in 1901 as
- Ocimum basilicum, L. (O. Americanum, Blanco.)
- Printed in 1985 as
- Ocimum basilicum L.
- Sources
- Page 195 on Project Gutenberg · Healing Wonders of Herbs (1985), page 72 · Wikipedia
The plant today
Basil (Ocimum basilicum), also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a tender plant and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" refers to the variety also known as Genovese basil or sweet basil. Basil is native to tropical and subtopical Asia and Australasia from India and Sri Lanka east to southeastern China, Taiwan, and south through Southeast Asia, the Philippines, New Guinea, to northern Australia.
Excerpt from “Basil” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sa Tagalog
Ang balanoy o Ocimum basilicum (Ingles: basil, sweet basil, tulsi) ay isang halamang yerbang kabilang sa pamilya ng mga menta o Lamiaceae na ginagamit sa pagluluto. Kilala rin ito bilang matamis na balanoy.
Sipi mula sa “Balanoy” sa Tagalog Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 109 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 21 provinces, most often Agusan del Sur (31), Batangas (6), Isabela (5), Guimaras (4), Oriental Mindoro (3), Palawan (3), Marinduque (2), Nueva Ecija (2), and 13 more.
Counts from GBIF occurrence records, October 2026. They include planted trees and garden plants, and a province with no records may only lack collectors.
What the 1901 book says
A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.
The book gives one account for this plant and Sulasi (Ocimum sanctum) and Loko-loko (Ocimum gratissimum), so the text below appears on each page.
Uses
All three species possess a characteristic camphoraceous odor and are commonly grouped under the one name, albahacas (sweet basil). Some natives call them solasi and others balanay, but many are able to distinguish the various species correctly. All three have analogous properties, but the most widely used is the O. basilicum. These properties are stimulant, diaphoretic, and expectorant, and the infusion is used commonly for flatulent colic and painful dyspepsia. The dry powdered leaves of the O. sanctum are taken as snuff by the natives of India in the treatment of a curious endemic disease characterized by the presence of small maggots in the nasal secretion; this disease is called peenash, and possibly exists in the Philippines though I have never encountered it.
Martins states that in Brazil they use a decoction of the mucilaginous leaves of the O. gratissimum in the treatment of gonorrhœa and Dr. Waitz highly recommends a strong decoction of these leaves for the aphthæ of children, which he claims to have cured by this means after all European drugs had failed. This fact and the action of the snuff above mentioned, demonstrate the antiseptic properties of the plant, due doubtless to its abundant aromatic principles.
O. basilicum contains a green essential oil, very aromatic, becoming solid; it is a sort of camphor (C20H166HO, Raybaud) and crystallizes in 4-faced prisms.
All the plants are used to prepare aromatic baths for cases of atrophy and debility in children (Waitz) and for the treatment of rheumatism and paralysis.
Botanical description
O. gratissimum is a plant 2–3° high, stem straight, downy. Leaves medium lanceolate, finely serrate from the middle upwards, with short hairs and transparent dots. Flowers in long terminal racemes. Calyx, upper lip horizontal, round; lower lip 3 pointed parts, the middle one subdivided in two. Corolla yellowish, inverted, one lip cleft in 4 obtuse lobes; the other longer, narrow, serrate. Stamens didynamous, 2 shorter. Anthers semilunar. Stigma bifid. Seeds 4.
The O. Americanum has leaves lanceolate, ovate, acute, full of pores, somewhat downy. It is more fragrant than the other species and its flowers are bluish-white in racemes.
The O. sanctum is the most sacred plant of the Hindoos, dedicated to Vishnu; its branches are wavy or cauliflexuous, leaves obliquely ovate, obtuse, serrate, nearly glabrous.
What the 1985 book uses it for
A record of home remedies from 1985, with the book's amounts and doses reworded. It is not medical advice.
- Athlete's footLeaf juice, applied after a foot bath.Apply after the makabuhay foot bath.Page 15
Summarised from Herminia de Guzman-Ladion, Healing Wonders of Herbs (Manila: Philippine Publishing House, 1985), where this plant is shown as “Balanoy” on page 72. The book is in copyright, so its wording and photographs are not reproduced. Amounts are the book's, restated.
Recent research
The most cited papers since 2022 that name this plant in the title, pulled from Europe PMC in October 2026. Titles are the authors' own and the findings have not been reviewed here.
- Antimicrobial, Antioxidant, Cytotoxic Activities and Phytochemical Analysis of Fungal Endophytes Isolated from Ocimum Basilicum
- Antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of chitosan nanoparticles loaded with Ocimum basilicum L. essential oil
- The Impact of Soil pH on Heavy Metals Uptake and Photosynthesis Efficiency in Melissa officinalis, Taraxacum officinalis, Ocimum basilicum