Sulasi
Ocimum tenuiflorum · Holy basil
- Names in the book
- Balanay, Tag.; Sacred Basil, Eng.
- Used for
- Cough and asthmaMouth, teeth and throatStomach and digestionJoint pain, sprains and swelling
- Colours
- flowerpurple, white
- Native range
- Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia
- In the Philippines, per the book
- All species are very common and universally known.
- Family
- Lamiaceae, filed in the book under Labiatæ
- Printed as
- Ocimum sanctum, L. (O. flexuosum, Blanco.)
- Sources
- Page 195 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
Ocimum tenuiflorum, commonly known as tulasi, tulsi, or holy basil, is an aromatic perennial plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is widely cultivated throughout the Southeast Asian tropics. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Australia and the western Pacific. This plant has escaped from cultivation and has naturalized in many tropical regions of the Americas. It is an agricultural and environmental weed. Tulasi is cultivated for religious and traditional medicine purposes, and also for its essential oil. It is widely used as an herbal tea, commonly used in Ayurveda.
Excerpt from “Ocimum tenuiflorum” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 100 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 23 provinces, most often Albay (5), Camarines Sur (3), Cavite (3), Cebu (3), Bataan (2), Benguet (2), Laguna (2), Metropolitan Manila (2), and 15 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 Balanoy (Ocimum basilicum) 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.
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.
- Targeting COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) main protease through active phytochemicals of ayurvedic medicinal plants - Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha), Tinospora cordifolia (Giloy) and Ocimum sanctum (Tulsi) - a molecular docking study
- Defining the Role of Isoeugenol from Ocimum tenuiflorum against Diabetes Mellitus-Linked Alzheimer's Disease through Network Pharmacology and Computational Methods
- Computer-Aided Screening of Phytoconstituents from Ocimum tenuiflorum against Diabetes Mellitus Targeting DPP4 Inhibition: A Combination of Molecular Docking, Molecular Dynamics, and Pharmacokinetics Approaches